A Wish for the End - The Child of Man and Beast
by toofine89
Summary: Naruto was born with his whiskers, his parents, a prophecy, and the hope of the strongest being to exist. But can he possibly fulfill the tremendous goal left for him? Only time will tell, and that has been the problem so far. Too much time alone. May eventually crossover or contain slight explicit material but not for a while. May be harem though not likely.
1. The Dreams

**Edit: This is version two. Probably final. Working on the next couple of chapters.**

Most people would never have guessed that Naruto was born with the whiskers already on his face. Most people would, then, continue on to guess incorrectly about the source of his massive chakra. People would even incorrectly guess about his absurd level of healing that bordered regeneration. His parents knew, Sarutobi knew, even Kakashi knew. But none else. When the loyal Orochimaru had taken his friend's place, Minato's place, in sealing the Kyuubi into Minato's son, everyone assumed that was when they appeared. But they would be wrong.

The dreams, however, did come with the sealing of the great beast. They didn't used to be very clear but, by the time he turned ten, it all started to make sense to him. They always started the same way. Ever since he was born they started the same way and it was always the same dream. _Nothingness. Nothing but one, and the one was many, and the many were all they were. And the one traveled in stillness through all of that which was not until it could take it no longer. Until it screamed insanity into silent void. "Earth!" it screamed. "Land!" it bellowed. "Home," it whispered. And so, in the blackness came earth. Huge chunks of material that floated, some coming together while others gathered a million miles away, floating in ellipses around each other. And the voice was content and the many were no longer the all, even though they were still one, and wandered through what they called land, never finding the tail it grew to be significant. The first voice was silent as it enjoyed the creation and the others had not yet felt the need to speak, as they already knew each other so well._

Possibly coincidentally, during the first year of his life Naruto could nearly reshape landscapes when he threw a tantrum. His parents knew he would be strong, and didn't even sense any of Kyuubi's, the nine tailed demon fox, power. It was all their son. And they knew he would be the most powerful earth user in recorded history. Maybe ever. It was a trying time, mind you, to raise a boy who could cause small earth quakes with tears or make barren soil fertile with a laugh, but they loved him nonetheless. But when he turned one, his dream extended and things changed again.

_The first voice was pleased and content to wander their creation, but a second was not. She, it, felt the void still around them. And it felt, decidedly, cold. So the second voice cried out for "Fire!" and for "Light!" And somewhere so deep down that it was hidden from the other voices, maybe even from its speaker, the word warmth was spoken with such longing that great balls of fire were risen into the _sky_. And the voice called it _Sun_, and the other like it _stars_. And the fire above and below and through the void reached her, and warmed her. And she, like her brother-self, basked in the glory of their creation. And the others, too, enjoyed it. She also took pride in her second tail that they had grown. And for many eons of time that stretched from one end to the next beginning and back, they were silent._

Yet again, Naruto surprised his parents at his first birthday party when the candles on his cake lit. And the lanterns lit. And when the roof of the Hyuga's main house lit. The boy, enjoying the warmth and the spectacle of light was all too eager to try his new powers and only due to the wise parenting and discipline of his parents did the village not catch fire. But yet again, his parents were excited. The boy would make a fine ninja one day. And for a year they were happy to help him learn basic control under the guise of games. Until, one year later, he dreamt even further into the dream of the voices.

_A third voice spoke one day, when the heat was unbearable. And it called for a way to ease the fire. "Too hot!" it said. "Let make cool, make water!" Something, he thought, to comfort. And so they made water, above and below, in great powerful pools that covered some of the land and in great soft expanses that shielded from the Sun. Some even formed clouds far out in the void, far away from the land or fiery stars. And the voices enjoyed the relief and used their three tails to help them swim the huge _oceans _they had made. They enjoyed the land that gave a home, the fire that warmed, the water that soothed and cooled. And the voices were quieted. And they stayed that way for a long time, longer than ever before._

Ever since Naruto turned two, two weeks ago, it had been raining. The family had taken a trip to a nearby town where a festival was going on to celebrate, but the rain seemed to follow them and the festival was canceled in the downpour. Still, the weather was warm so they decided to swim as, at least, it wasn't like the rain could ruin a swim in the large lake that was the town's claim to fame. As the boy had learned to walk and could say some small words, they decided to, with extremely careful supervision, swim in the shallows with him. Even if it was more them holding him up while he tried to tread water.

"Come to mommy!" called out a beautiful red-haired woman. Kushina had barely survived the Kyuubi incident as the mysterious black-garbed assassin who had attacked them and freed the great beast from her stomach had nearly done her in, but the wayward Tsunade had made her annual appearance in the village that very day and had managed to save her with Minato's help in fighting off the effects of bijuu removal. It was unfortunate that the carmine woman would barely be more than a chunin in strength ever again.

Her husband, Minato Namikaze, Kiroi Senko, the Yondaime Hokage, the Killer of Legions, badass SS rank ninja with a flee on sight order, was holding their son afloat and laughing with a pleasant smile on his face as the young toddler kicked his short little legs in an attempt to get to his mother. "You can do it, Naruto!" he said.

As if spurred on by his words the boy focused with a cute look on his face as it crinkled in concentration. He stopped swimming towards Kushina, relying on his dad to keep him afloat. Instead, he focused on her and pulled on the water as if pulling a tug of war. "Momma, 'ere" the little boy said and the water surrounding her was pulled right towards the boy. When she was close enough he jumped from his dad's hands to his mom's, laughing in childish glee. "Did it Momma!" he shouted. His parents just looked at each other in shock for a moment.

'A third element?' they shared the thought before Minato's visage changed to one of pride. "You sure did, didn't you?" And it took another month before they could help the boy stop the incessant rain he had caused.

_Now, the voices had a land they called home, and fire to warm them, and water to soothe them. But it wasn't enough. They were bored. They knew each other. They needed something more. And the fourth voice spoke up. He called the thought his brethren were sharing aloud, slowly growing more intelligent over the ages. "More _creatures_!" he said. "We need more creatures to share our home." And again he whispered to himself. "We need companions." And they made them from themselves, from the breath of their body. Some swayed still in the breeze and ate sunlight. Some flew through the swayers, and others flew through the water. Others dwelled in the ground and some on the ground and the beast marveled at the things he had made. For years the four tailed beast wandered through the land, and was happy to have the others of its own self and the others it had made. And they were content for many years, though they couldn't help but feel there was something missing with their creations._

By now, on Naruto's third birthday, his parents were prepared. Yearly to the day, since the date of his birth, Naruto had gained an uncontrollable dominion over some element. That would explain why both Kakashi and Asuma, masters of wind and lightning, were present to tame the boy should one of those elements go haywire this year. Surely enough, on the anniversary of his birth to the minute of birth, the wind picked up around the village and only the soothing rocking Kushina was giving Naruto while singing quiet lullabies along with Asuma's hard work prevented heavy winds from rocking the village and doing light storm damage. Naruto was possibly the best behaved toddler the village had ever seen as, for the next month and a half, the boy meditated with his father daily to control the outbursts of wind he caused at the slightest whim while finally also quelling the occasional outburst of flame, ground tremor, or rain storm he brought.

It was this year that he had met the various clan heirs and made friends among them, especially with another hyperactive little boy named Kiba, the Inuzuka clan heir. Their parents would occasionaly meet together as they were family friends and Tsume always laughed as Kiba, even then, tried to assert dominance over the boy a few months younger than he and was, succinctly knocked on his ass by a gust of wind or tripped by a small rise in the ground that hadn't been there a second ago. The only boy Naruto was closer with was one Sasuke Uchiha. They had been crib mates and, despite the fact that Sasuke had a little of his father's bland personality already, both blonde Namikaze's had managed to bring him out of his shell. They also noticed, in the passing, that Sasuke seemed a little shy around one Hinata Hyuga. One year later, the dream extended further yet, to a fifth voice.

And it said, _"I have found what was, was not what we wanted. The creatures we made live, learn, and feel. But only learn so much. Let us make a being that can talk with us, that can interact with us." 'We need an equal,' she thought to herself, though she would never admit it. And they took their most versatile animal, an _ape_, and changed it to something much different. And then they gave it a spark. A small shock to the mind that started everything else. And for the first time ever, another being spoke on a level like theirs. Other creatures were made as well. Things that the "humans" called "demons" or "angels." And the five tailed beast spoke with them all. Learned and taught and grew and enjoyed itself for several thousand years._

On Naruto's fourth birthday his parents had surrounded him with lightning rods and prepared for the worst. And they were damn happy they had prepared. A blast similar to the technique _Kirin_, though smaller in size,dropped on Naruto's location and was absorbed by the small field of rods before it could do much damage, though the boy's clothes were still singed and much of the local flora and fauna was gone. For two months Naruto carried a risk of attracting electricity in a storm and for another two months he carried a permanent static charge that shocked all he came in contact with. It was a great trick to use on Kiba. Two months later, his mother and, from time to time, Kakashi started to train him in the basic ninja arts. By the end of the year he would have the physical strength and stamina of a last year academy student, and the chakra reserves of ten elite jounin.

_ But the humans grew wrongly. They campaigned against angels and demons and wiped all but the fewest of them out. Then, they campaigned against each other. It was ugly. It was brutal. It was death. And when blasts comparable to those the beast could harness launched across his home, he destroyed the harbingers of doom. The sixth voice spoke. "We have done a great wrong and must fix it. We must destroy those who threaten the place we made. Those who threaten peace." 'I only wanted us to all live together," she thought. 'I wanted for us to be even. But instead we must dominate them.' The then six tailed beast wiped out the bombs' creators. Then they wiped out the rest of the corrupt race. And the demons fled to the depths to escape its rage while the angels soared to new heights to avoid the bloody rage that certainly would destroy them otherwise. And the beast raged until all was silent but for the first creatures it had made. And it wept._

Although there were no other elements for the five year old boy to gain this year, precautions were still taken. It was all for naught, though, as there was no sudden chaos as in years past. Over the course of the day, Naruto's chakra doubled and doubled again until he had widely eclipsed even his father who was, himself, known to be a chakra beast. Over the course of the year, it would double once more and, as was discovered during training, he had been given power even over the sub-elements, though they did take more chakra and more focus than the others. Still, that did not make it any less satisfying to burn slowly through a mean man's chair leg with acid breath without being caught or the look on Sasuke's face, as his friend often trained alongside him, when he blocked the practice wooden shuriken with an ice wall or shot out a laser with storm release for the first time. Though Kakashi had heavily chastised the boy for nearly maiming his friend with a laser and when Kakashi "chastised" Naruto it was in the form of physical exercises that hurt like no tomorrow and certainly stopped Naruto from doing his stupid act ever again.

By the year's end, he had grown to be as strong as a genin in most areas, though it was noticeable that the boy had nearly no control over his vast strength and the idea of using genjutsu, despite his vast creativity, was ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as learning healing techniques. And god did he need those techniques. No, not for training. He healed at an inhuman rate bordering on regeneration, though no one really wanted to test out exactly how much he could really regenerate. Of course, the amount of food he consumed was definitely a downside as his metabolism was in overdrive to compensate and he often craved the most disturbing things. His mother always chuckled as his cravings for high calorie foods reminded her of how she had spent many days during pregnancy. In fact, that was how she was spending many days again as she was pregnant with a second child.

Naruto did need healing techniques for his mind, however. He had told his parents about the dreams which, currently, always ended in a destructive nightmare that finished with anguish. Being concerned parents, they tried their best to help him. They even had Inoichi Yamanaka, premier mind-walker and psychiatrist help him. Nearly weekly Naruto would visit the blonde man and tell him of his dreams and, at first, the man had thought they were the result of an overactive imagination. He had given him various normal treatments and sent him home. But the dreams would not stop and each night he would witness the destruction of a new city, of a new people group, of a different time completely. And each morning he woke with tears running down his whiskered cheek.

Soon, Minato figured it out. These things were visions, maybe of the past or maybe of the future. They were no doubt passed down through the fox inside his son, but there was nothing he could do to stop them. So often Naruto would wake at night or early morning and crawl into bed with his parents. They would comfort him, and he would try not to think about the screams and gore. Things would not improve until he turned six and the dream took a better turn.

_The beast wept for days. It wept for years, in fact. A man's lifetime would start and his great grandchild's life end before the tears ceased flooding the earth. Its best and most beautiful creation was also its ugliest. But a seventh voice arose as a seventh tail sprouted from the beast. It was in a beautiful, sorrowful, haunting voice that she said, "Once more. We'll give them one more chance. We'll bring them back, but not give them the knowledge of such destruction ever again. All records erased, all evidence destroyed, all needed resources gone forever." 'We will forgive and try again.' And so, with an effort of emotion and will, the creatures, men, were brought back from a single line that had managed to wait out the flood on top of a great mountain where a natural energy had kept them safe. And the creature walked among them and governed them. And they were content with the men they had lead that had not yet been corrupted as those of old had once been._

On his sixth birthday, Naruto knew how to heal. He knew how to heal with a smile the hearts of the downtrodden and how to heal with his power the wounds of the injured man. He didn't use jutsu as it was instinctual chakra use, though he would still need to learn the works of the human body to make himself fully useful. It was also deeply linked to his emotions and, as often as not, trying to do it while angry would just cause more damage or sorrow than just letting it be. As it was right now, he was stronger than almost all genin in everything but genjutsu and chakra control. But, with such a humongous amount of chakra, it was only to be expected.

It was decided that he would join the ninja academy this year and be fast-tracked to graduate soon before he turned nine. The various girls he was friends with started to look at their male counterparts with the crushes that little kids get, and Naruto was the target of many young crushes due to his bright personality, great strength for his age, and his good looks that he got from his mom and dad. Whether it was the Yamanaka heiress or even girls a few years older like the girl from the ramen stand, Ayame Ichiraku, they all had their little crushes on the boy over the year.

Unfortunately, Sasuke had suffered a great loss this year. The destruction of his clan at the hands of his brother. And now the boys had become brothers. The young Uchiha moved in with his best blonde friend and they became close, even closer than he had become with Kiba and Hinata. Naruto's new gift of emotional healing was truly a great boon to the damaged Uchiha.

Naruto was quite mature, and wise, for his age, but also quite upbeat and perpetually happy. It may have had to do, largely, in part to his dreams. Anyone who witnessed and felt the thoughts of the many in one, witnessed creation, devastation, and rebirth each night was bound to develop a little differently from other children. Especially the angst of destruction and catharsis of rebirth. That and his mother and father supported him in whatever endeavors he took on.

He was even behaved well enough that when the Raikage, his fiancé Mabui, and a little girl named Yugito visited that year, he was allowed, for the first time ever, to sit with his parents through the political event. And gosh did he like that girl. She was about his age and, even then, was a skinny little girl with blonde hair she was growing into a pony tail. When they were introduced he, being his bouncy self, bounced right on up to the girl and stuck his hand out with a, "Hi! My name's Naruto Namikaze! And you're pretty!" She, on the other hand, hid behind Mabui and only came out to shake his hand with a little bit of coaxing from the pretty dark-skinned woman. The adults could only laugh as he dragged her off after dinner to show her their estate. Even then it was partly his friendliness that helped form the treaty behind their villages.

He even met his godparents, Jiraiya and Tsunade, more often now. The land was in relative peace so the sage could visit more often and Tsunade, now having a reason to visit Konoha in the form of young Naruto, visited nearly weekly. And each time one of the sannin stopped by, they would play with him or show him something new in either jutsu or anatomy before stopping at the memorial to their passed friends, especially for Orochimaru, and leaving with the promise to visit again soon. The two sannin were even seen drinking or eating together from time to time in what both denied were dates. And it was a good year of dreaming while Naruto waited for the dream to continue.

_The great beast roamed the land, sometimes in the guise of one of his creations whether it be human, angel, demon, or animal and sometimes in his own glorious form that breathed power. She taught some of the humans a new form of energy in the hopes that they would focus on it instead of what the last group had developed over time, especially since it was the most natural form of this energy that saved humanity the first time. But, the beast could not honestly say it was just for their benefit. No, it was also for the beast._

_An eighth tail had sprouted from the beast and an eight voice had spoken. "We need a challenge. We have company but are on a pinnacle that no creation of ours can reach. And we are tired of being revered." 'Tired of being alone.' He continued aloud to himself. "No, we must have a challenge, something to fight with or for, something to bring us more, more, more something than ever before._

_The beast did not know what was missing. It now had home and warmth and cool and companions and challenge, but it was not enough. Something was not there and they wanted it desperately. They fought to enable their creation. Teaching them more about this power they called "chakra" and strengthening the men and women who could use it. Maybe, they could be what was missing?_

As Naruto turned seven, he nearly instantly gained a greater amount of control over his chakra. Sure, it was only like turning the fire hose that was his leaking stream of chakra from full blast to half power, but the boy was certainly happy for it. He had managed tree climbing, somehow, with his old chakra. Now he could even water walk. This year, in order to cement the alliance with Kumo, both of the young Jinchuriki, Naruto and Yugito, along with a clan heir and good friend, Sasuke from Konoha and Darui from Kumo, would finish their education for half a year in Kumo and half a year in Konoha. It would show the trust each village had in exchanging two powerful potential ninja and not keeping any bargaining power in addition to helping the inhabitants of both villages get used to seeing their allies' ninja in their town as would happen from time to time among allies. A secondary objective was that Killer Bee, the Jinchuriki of the eight-tailed Hachibi would spend the time that Naruto was in Kumo to help him contact the Kyuubi and even to harness some of his powers.

And the four became close friends overtime as Darui's mellow personality mixed well with Sasuke's and the two blondes got along excellently. Over the course of his time in Kumo, Naruto never was able to actually contact the Kyuubi, though he did gain full control over using one "tail" of chakra and was able to differentiate between friend and foe when using up to three tails even if jutsu and fully conscious thought became near impossible. Screw that, using three tails was just stupid as the amount of effort he had to use to not just maul everything was way too huge to be practical in battle.

Towards the end of the year, Naruto and company left with the Raikage to meet Minato halfway between their countries and they reaffirmed their alliance treaty to last a decade before renegotiations would take place. The four children, each as strong as some chunin, parted ways to go home. Minato was pleased to note that, before leaving, Yugito planted a chaste girlish kiss on Naruto's cheeks before they both blushed, fell silent, and parted with smiles on their embarrassed faces. Oh yes, there would be teasing.

The rest of the year was spent reinitiating the two Konoha boys into the Academy so that they could graduate that year and graduate they did. Minato and Kushina decided that the boys would learn under Jiraiya and remain genin until their age group had caught up to them so that the boys could focus on learning politics for their future clan head positions and on other subjects of their choice. Naruto updated them on the story and his parents and local historians alike were greatly surprised. It seemed that he was remembering the first use of chakra in humanity. And only one being was known to have lived back then that may still have sway in the world. The originator of the nine bijuu, their "mother," so to speak. The ten-tailed beast, the Juubi. On Naruto's eighth birthday, the dream continued.

_The beast continued on for many years, but no man could challenge him. Could tire him. Could even pose the smallest threat. And as desperation for a worthy fight stepped in, the ninth tail sprouted. "I have no purpose," a new voice shouted in desperation, a desperation that could not be captured in words as it barked, howled, roared, and cried for relief. He had filled much of the void with land and water and fire and creatures and power and the void still existed inside of him. It was still one with nothing and nothing could fill that void that he she it they could create. "It's all so worthless. I just want someone to match me. For the boredom to end. For it all to end." It then howled in a different tone, one known only to a few unfortunates. It was a sound that hurt. It hurt so much to hear it, let alone to feel it. It was the sound of a man missing parts of his lung as shrapnel worked through his blood system. Of a diseased child who was eaten by worms from the inside. The sound of an old man who held his wife's cold hand while his remaining family was long since gone. It simply said, "I want to die."_

******Yes, this story has an overpowered Naruto. But you will see why as time passes. Already working, almost done with chapter two and will be much of the way through chapter three before I post chapter two.**


	2. Child of Beast

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruto (I wish) and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Credit out to all my reviewers, especially those who asked good questions about the series and offered criticism.**

**A Child of Beast**

That was a hard night. In fact it was a hard year. That very night that Naruto first had his dream, he told his parents he loved them before going back into his bedroom and slashing his wrist with a kunai. He watched as the blood poured out from the limb before sealing up within mere seconds. He cut it again, but it healed even faster. More tears started to well up in his beautiful cerulean eyes than had any right to be there as he slashed both wrists this time. It still wasn't enough. He slit across his own throat and it certainly bled more, but it wasn't enough before it healed. It seemed that he may even be making more blood to compensate for what he lost.

So he decided to go drastic. He cut off his entire right hand at the wrist and screamed in pain as it fell to the floor cold and even more as, over the next three minutes a new hand grew back in its place, complete with tan skin and the smallest soft golden hair on the back of his hand. He grasped at his new limb and curled it reflexively before taking the knife and aiming it at his eye. He took a second to psyche himself up before driving his arm back towards his face at high speeds, only to have it stopped as another hand, masculine, grabbed his wrist and twisted it to knock the knife away before he was enveloped in the arms of his surrogate brother, father, and mother. All three cried for his pain and none minded the wet blood that stained their clothes as they comforted their blonde who was, after all, still just a boy even if he was a ninja. That night, he finished sleeping with them in a medicine induced dreamless sleep and the next morning was off to see a Mr. Yamanaka and a torture specialist/psychologist, Morino Ibiki, for help.

Ibiki was not a morning person, or an evening person, or really that happy a person, nor a patient man if it didn't involve his work. He could always be patient and do whatever it took to make a shinobi speak, but that was a challenge and he enjoyed challenges. Needles, pliers, shocks, fire, drugs, cold, blades, genjutsu, threats to their family and friends and then following through on those threats. Everyone had a price, some not nearly as mundane as those listed above, and he enjoyed those who actually made him need to put his full force into finding exactly what their price was. But this was not one of those times.

He was found making pancakes for breakfast by one of his subordinates. The young man was then intimidated to within an inch of his sanity to never reveal that Ibiki wore a "Kiss the Cook" apron while cooking. Then the pancakes burned. And he ran out of creamer for his coffee so he downed it black. And he was not in the mood for black coffee. And then, to make all things worse, Maito Gai had felt the need to keep pace with him as he jumped rooftops to the Hokage Tower. And he had to listen to Gai who seemed to be on some new kick, talking about how youthful everything was. It was even worse than when Gai had been obsessed with being "hip."

So Ibiki was in a bad mood. He shoved his way through the crowds to get upstairs to the Hokage's office and opened the door roughly before gruffly saying, "What the hell do you-" only to be cut off. Naruto, Minato, Kushina, Sasuke, and Inoichi were already there and the last time that Ibiki had seen the boy like this was when he had had his nightmares of destruction a few years back. The little blonde had been one of the few to work his way into Ibiki's seemingly frozen heart. And it hurt to see the boy so despondent. "What's wrong?"

The boy looked down, ashamed. His mother held him a little closer before kissing the top of his head and just comforting the poor boy. That left it to his father to explain. "He won't tell us why, but, last night, Naruto tried to kill himself. Repeatedly. He slit his wrists, his throat, cut off a hand, and had regenerated it all before he could die. I caught him as he was trying to shove a kunai through his eye and into his brain."

That was not what Ibiki had expected from the elder blonde. He went over to the topic of conversation and tousled his hair with one hand while the other lifted the boy's chin up. "What's wrong?" he repeated.

"The dream," Naruto said. "We got another tail, a ninth, and we wanted to die. It wanted it so badly I couldn't stand it, so much that I wanted it. But, like it, I couldn't. I couldn't die." The boy looked down again, tears gathering in the corner of his eyes. "Why couldn't I die? I don't want to leave you all, but why can't I just die?" the boy asked as saline trails ran down his face.

Ibiki sighed a long, drawn out sigh. "We'll help you with it kid. We'll do what we can."

The boy looked up, shocked. "You guys aren't disappointed?"

Inoichi answered that one. "Of course we are. Naruto, we know these visions of yours are real and feel real. And we know they are so real that they manifest in ways that affect you immensely. Just like how you gained all the elements erratically at first and had to train to use them effectively instead of uncontrollably, we will help you curb these urges too. Still, that doesn't mean that we aren't sad you'd try to kill yourself."

"I knew you guys wouldn't love me anymore. That none of you would-"

"Shut up, baka!" Sasuke yelled at his friend. "You're still my brother, their kid, their friend. None of that changed."

His mother continued a little more soothingly. "We do love you, but we are disappointed. If you had just told us what was wrong then we could have helped."

"How?" the boy said with a snivel. "Mr. Yamanaka can't even stop the dreams."

"No," his father said, "we may not be able to stop them. But we can show you that there is something here worth living for, stronger even than the urge to die. It's us, the village, everyone who cares for you. We would be so sad if you were gone. It would break our hearts if you left like that."

And the little blonde started weeping again, even though he didn't think he'd have any tears left after last night. "I'm sorry," he said, apologizing even while his nose ran like a faucet. "I'll never do it again. I'm sorry."

"Shh, shh," his mother calmed him, playing with his hair in a comforting manner. "It's okay. Let's just figure this out one step at a time. Okay?"

The boy stopped crying long enough to agree. And that was the start of a trying year. No new "gifts" came that year, though his elemental affinities did seem to strengthen some and he did mature greatly. Though that is debatable if it was connected to the earlier surprises or just the heavy training he was doing this year. He still always felt the urge to die when he woke, but he did manage to tame it some. He just remembered all the things in his life that made it worth living when it got too bad. Jiraiya. Sasuke. Mom. Dad. Konoha. Ramen. Yugito. They all made it worthwhile.

He, Jiraiya, and Sasuke went on several missions that year- 10 D-ranks, 10 C-ranks, and even one B-rank that really was just an overpaid C-rank. Still, the boys were excited enough about going on a "superdangerousactionpackedperilouskickass" mission that they conveniently forgot how easy it was in hindsight. Once in a while they'd drag along a Chunin so the older nin could get some experience in leading a group without having to lead too troublesome a group. Hana Inuzuka, Anko Mitarashi, and Umino Iruka all worked elsewhere in the village most of the time and were glad to take a break to lead a mission here or there when Jiraiya had to be somewhere.

The weirdest thing, though was that Naruto decided it was time to show his dream as well as he could. Just earlier that year he had learned – and was starting to abuse – the Kage Bunshin Jutsu. This jutsu allowed one to create "living" shadow clones that would dispel after one good hit and could be adjusted as needed. As concentration varied while forming, the clones' original caster could focus to have his clones' personality match the original, be given chakra for ninjutsu, have nearly the same physical strength for taijutsu, or any combination of the above and other factors. A shadow clone would often be subpar to the user unless exorbitant amounts of chakra were used to make the clone, and that's saying something considering that the technique was already chakra intensive.

Regardless, Naruto made several of these clones each morning and dispelled and recreated them throughout the day to take advantage of their biggest advantage: they returned their memories to him. That meant he could read at a intense rate, learn new skills, train taijutsu for muscle memory, learn chakra control through practice, or even learn new ninjutsu without ever doing it himself. Mind you, the technique had limits.

It was hard to look through an entire day's worth of reading when it returned to you, just because you learned a skill doesn't mean you learned it correctly, physical strength and speed didn't transfer over, his chakra control was still horrendous due to the ludicrous amount he had and was still gaining as he grew, it absolutely drained him when he had to give enough chakra to clones to practice ninjutsu for a good amount of time, and – of course – the mental and physical strain of making so many clones and then deciphering what they all did upon dispelling was horrendous. It did make it a little better when Naruto had thought to make a "lead" clone first that made the others and figured out the most pertinent information before dispelling and passing it on. And, of course, it also was a bonus that much of the clones' unused chakra returned to him when he finally mastered the technique.

But the worst and best part was the fraction of a second the clones "remembered" upon dying. It was horrifying, terrifying, absolute insanity that the clone experienced as it poofed into "nothingness." In fact, it was one of the reasons that the technique was forbidden as the experience could drive lesser men insane. But, as hard as it was to live through even once, he lived through it over a hundred times daily in order to sate the unimaginable lust for death that he had gained on his last birthday. It had been, in addition to truly finding out how much those around him cared, one of the biggest things that allowed him to not attempt suicide again as he experienced death on a daily basis. It still hurt for his parents to watch him dispel clones, though, as he often had them commit suicide upon dispelling to truly experience ending himself. It was quite macabre, but it helped him like nothing else.

The dreams broke their pattern this year. They continued on. Each night without fail he would see a little more of his dream. Each night he would see at least another decade pass as the beast challenged the strongest humans, angels, and demons in the hopes that one could kill him. But none could. And then one tied him and refused to kill them. It wasn't that this human was strong. No, she was weak, frail even. She was a beautiful woman with perfect red hair, sparkling eyes of deep emerald, and a smile that enchanted the beast. She actually was not the most gorgeous woman in the world. She didn't have the body of a model, and even had a small, unflattering mole on her right cheek. Her hands were calloused from what work she managed and her potentially perfect hair knotted up from lack of proper maintenance and frayed in the sun was no longer perfect. But the beast thought she was perfect from the first time it saw her smile, even though her teeth, like many of her time, were not perfectly straight nor blindingly white. It actually was this smile that beat the beast as, no matter how it tried, it could not bring itself to harm her.

He had always loved its creation, but had never felt the feelings that now stirred inside her. It was a new kind of attraction and the beast grew a tenth tail. It joined her in the human form of a perfect man, and courted her. And for the first time, the beast felt something new, the beast felt a new love. Not a protective love, though it was still present. Not a friendly concerned love, though he obviously was always concerned for her. It was, instead, a passionate love. And his love made her beautiful both in his eyes and quite literally changed her outside appearance to what he saw on her inside. Her hair become perfect and glossy, her teeth white and straight, her mole became an accent that only added to her beauty and the rest of her skin was flawless. Continue on with the most usual descriptions of the perfect beauty and she fit each whether it be in figure, eyes, or any other physical feature. And none denied that she was the most beautiful, perfect woman since the dawn of mankind. However, that does not even begin to touch her inner beauty and inner strength that were, if anything, more blinding than her smile.

Rumor has it, and quite a believable rumor, was that this woman was the original idea behind the samurai ideal of the Yamato Nadeshiko – a perfect woman who is both proper, gentle, and beautiful yet also knows how to stand up for what needs protection. Hell, she nearly had the beast whipped when she stood up for something.

Naruto had taken up art, learning constantly with one of his clones how to paint and draw. And when he considered himself to be at least mediocre, he started to draw his dreams. But yet, when he tried to draw the woman's face, he could not. It never turned out right. It never did her justice. Yes, she looked beautiful here, strong for her children there, and in love in a third picture. But never could they be brought together. So he refused to try to do so and draw her without her full glory. After all, the dreams affected him and he found himself loving her just as much as the beast had. Oh how he loved Usagi. That is why, in all of the redone drawings and those to follow she was faceless.

She gave the beast-man two children, a fully human son and a daughter who was just like the beast, and the last hundred years of her life. She would have given him more heirs if she could, but a third child would have been her death. And each moment spent with her felt longer and more fulfilling than all the time he had spent before her. Alas, despite the fact that the beast lengthened her life to a ridiculous extent, she was still human. And one day, in his arms, she fell asleep and refused to wake. Fulfilling his father's wish before the old beast-man could become angry and destructive, the son tried to kill him.

He sealed his father's body away, forming what would eventually be known as the moon and, despite his best attempt to "end" the man-beast, he could only split his soul into nine beast children. Each child was a different animal in form and had one to nine tails accordingly with their strength increasing with each tail. They also forgot much of their pasts and, ironically, looked up to their son as their father. The rest of the story goes on to say how he controlled them and raised them well but, when he died, the split apart to go to where they loved. The one tail going to a barren land, the two tail going to the hottest plateau, the three tail going to the deeps and so on and so forth.

The only one who remained a nomad was the nine tail who could not settle as he always felt to be missing something and felt the need to enter the most dangerous situation possible. Who felt the last need of the ninth voice better than the other eight beasts. He also felt another indescribable need to protect his aunt. Although most historians could tell you of the son and his line becoming Senju and Uchiha, few could tell you about her line. But the nine tail beast certainly could.

When Naruto turned nine, he was as powerful as some jounin without harnessing his beast and Sasuke as powerful as a strong chunin. They had each taken to their field of study quite aptly with Naruto learning fuinjutsu and ninjutsu while Sasuke found a love for genjutsu and kenjutsu. Both were highly adept at taijutsu and worked well as a two man cell. In fact, the Anbu organization had taken notice of them and, under the watchful gaze of Kakashi, were given missions that, although difficult, minimized bloodshed and killing. They were still boys and lesser missions had killed men. The cyclops did not want to break them, but to make them something unbreakable.

However, missions in Anbu were not without bloodshed and were meant to never be heard of. Naruto was only nine when he had to make his first kill. And it would haunt him for a long time. The mission was simple in idea. Break into Kusagakure, the village hidden in the grass, steal a document that would otherwise incriminate Konoha of a recent assassination, replace it with a forged document that would give nothing away, and leave unseen. And despite the difficulties in breaking into a ninja village, in stealing a guarded scroll and in forging a convincing fake, they were successful. But Naruto was the rearguard and only he saw the boy, five years old and sleepy, that had poked his head out of his bedroom with a stuffed teddy bear in hand. The boy rubbed his eyes tiredly and then looked up to see Naruto. Naruto killed the boy with a strike to the chest that simulated a violent heart attack. The boy's eyes clouded, his grip on the bear tightened in shock, and one last breath was quickly taken in before Naruto caught the boy, snuck him back into bed and into a natural pose and escaped.

He remained silent until they had made it out. Until they made it back to Fire Country the next morning. Until the made it back to Konoha. Until he was asked to detail his side of the mission. Until the others left and his dad embraced him. Then he wept until he fell asleep. He had killed a boy just a few years younger than he. An innocent little boy who had just woken up at the wrong time. Who had not done anything against Konoha but be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

But when he woke up, he did not find what he expected. He was not in a warm bed at home or a white hospital bed, or a bed at all for that matter. He was wrapped up in gold-red fur that comforted him. He wanted to close his eyes to sleep, but he could not. He was a ninja in a strange place and it was his duty to find out where. He lifted himself up, only to find himself in a dark place. Using a small fire ball jutsu, he tried to light up the area around himself but only revealed that he could not see the walls and ceiling despite his impromptu lantern, though he could see the floor. He could tell that he was on a hill or mound of some sort and climbed down so that the hill would give him some cover.

That is until two golden, majestic eyes with slit pupils opened and gave off a light of their own. They also unfocused and looked around before spotting him and focusing in again. All of a sudden, the hill he had just left stood up and the room was edged with fire as huge braziers were lit around him illuminating a huge den that felt like it was underground, though any ceiling was still out of sight.

They also revealed a humongous nine tail fox with pointed ears whose belly was easily on par with the height of the Hokage Tower. It growled slightly, scaring the boy shitless, before lunging forward, opening its massive maw, and, just as the end seemed near, licking the boy from toe to top.

"What the hell did they make you do? Why would your father make you kill him? What has changed?" said a voice that was powerful and demanding and, almost, protective. "A boy like you was never meant to kill, especially not so young. And a boy like him was not meant to die so young."

"Is this real?" was the first question Naruto had to ask. Oh, sure he was the Kyuubi's jailor but the elusive bastard had never shown himself before and no matter how deep inside the blonde dived he could never meet his captive before.

"Well, yes," the fox stated. "You see a gigantic fox beast that towers over you, inside of a large room, blazing with chakra, infuriated, who once attacked your village and your first response was to ask, 'Is this real?'" questioned the fox with some incredulity. "I expected arrogance or fear, but not disbelief."

"Well excuse me, you bastard, if I'm surprised to see something I've been taught is a heartless demon sympathizing with me over my first kill. I think you'd be more surprised if I took it all in stride," Naruto returned with sorrow leaving and impatience filling in for the moment.

"Well, yes, I suppose that is true. Nevertheless, I consider you a distant son due to our relation and the fact that you had to kill so young really does have me wound up a little. I mean, seriously, what the fuck went wrong with you all in the past hundred years or so?" the fox wondered aloud "First I help someone on my father's side against who he called an overly virtuous prick – lesson learned there by the way – only to be sealed into someone on aunt Emi's side and then into another on her side, neither of whom would talk with me, and then to be hypnotized by another man on my dad's side to attack my previous captors before finally finding, and being sealed into, the only true demi-human since my aunt. Can I just say that I've only been sealed for seventy years or so and this whole "ninja village" thing that started seems pretty fucked up to me. Sure, it may be better than the old way but you still have child soldiers, you're all too flashy now, you still seal what you call "demons" inside of children and now you have children running black operations? What the hell is with that? And another thing, how are you the "village hidden in the leaves?" Anyone who wants to know where you guys are can just follow down the road to your dang gates. How the hell is that hidden?"

The ranting beast looked down at the boy only to see a look of intense confusion. "What? Talking giant fox got your tongue?"

"Yes!" screamed Naruto back. "And what the hell do you mean 'son' and 'aunt?' I am by no means a fox and how many of you giant foxes are there for you to have an aunt?"

"Well," paused the Kyuubi, "it may be best to start at the beginning. But it may take a while."

"Go ahead," the boy grumbled, "I've got a while. After all, I'm asleep, probably tranquilized by meds to keep me from going into shock, and probably won't wake up for at least a day. As it is, I'm having trouble believing this isn't a dream brought on by either shock or meds. Try me."

The fox puffed out a large breath from his nostrils. "You really do take after aunt Emi." The fox continued to look at him for a few minutes before figuring out where to start. "Well, what I'll tell you tonight is exactly what happened, to the best of my memory. I'm sure you have heard of the Sage of Six Paths?" The boy nodded. "Well, he was the child of a woman I don't remember and of the Juubi, the combination of myself and I – you may better understand if I simply call us siblings – into one being. The sage, my siblings all called him father as he did raise us, was human. He was much stronger than any normal human due to being our offspring, but he was still human. You probably have heard how he had two human sons – one who inherited the Sharingan eye and one who gained the capability for the Rinnegan – who became fathers of the Uchiha and Senju lines, respectively. Most know this story and believe it myth, but it is true.

"What most people do not know is of his sister. She too was of ourself and our mate, but was not human where her brother was. No, she did not have our strength, but she did have a huge lifespan and her strength was about equal with father's. She inherited her mother's beauty, father said, and much of ourself's personality. We all loved aunt Emi dearly." The fox stopped for a second, stalling in slight nostalgia and fond remembrance.

Naruto found the story interesting, but had known parts of the story from his dreams. "I know much of this, Kyuubi. But why does it matter for me? And why do you talk as if you don't remember your own children, instead calling them aunt and father?"

The beast stopped for a moment. "Please don't call me nine tail. It is as good as me calling you fleshling or no tail instead of Naruto which, I believe, is your name. I have only woken recently, so forgive me if I cannot recall all that I should be able to access from here. However, enough of your open memories have that name for me to guess it yours. My name, given to me by father, is Kurama. But now, your questions. The latter is easier to answer. We did not remember more than a whisper of what we were together. I am only a few centuries, maybe eight or nine, old in my memories. I can only remember some of the deepest wishes of my brethren in my deepest dreams. So I am not ourself anymore, nor was I.

"But the first question needs me tell more of the story. Apparently aunt Emi had been given our tenth dream, our tenth voice, one that not even I may remember. But what we do know is that she had children by many men over the years before she fell to time's ravages. The two most prominent became known as Uzumaki and Namikaze. The lines grew stronger and stronger over time, especially in the minds of the Namikaze and the bodies of the Uzumaki. As far as I know, you are the first to be of both lines and have inherited her essence.

"I have seen you perform feats of great power and elemental control when I have scanned your memories for these past few weeks I have been awake. Those are natural for you and have not been part of the boon of containing me. You are very much like we were when we were merely your age. By the time we turned twenty, we had come into nearly our full power though it, obviously, took us centuries after to fine tune all that we can do. Like aunt Emi, you seem to have gained your power before even puberty and will soon rival us with the right training and control, even despite your small human form."

"What about the dreams?" the boy finally spoke up. "The dreams I've had since birth." At the fox's inquisitive look he continued. "It all starts with nothing before a being creates land, fire, water, and other creatures before giving them intelligence, having to destroy them, rebuilding us humans afterwards, giving us the understanding of chakra, and then wishing to die when it can find no meaning. My dreams have lately ended with the being finding a human woman and loving her, having two children who I take to be your father and aunt, and then ending."

Kurama was not sure how to respond as he was not sure himself. He continued after a moment. "It is possible that those are my hidden memories, or that they have traveled through your blood and are aunt Emi's. There may even be other reasons, but those two are most likely. In either case, my reason for being is ending and I have to imagine that the other listed acts are the passions of my siblings. Regardless, it is interesting."

The fox thought for a moment. "I have done two things since father died. I have tried to find ways to, in effect, die and I have watched over my aunt's line. Not even attacking the strongest human village could kill me, even under that man's hypnosis, and I have not watched her line in over half a century, not since I was sealed. I remember father saying that aunt Emi always had a dream of her own, and that her dream was our duty to fulfill. But she would never say what it was. Do you have such an internal dream?"

"No," Naruto said without hesitation. He had never felt something since birth, at least didn't think so. "I've always wanted to follow my father as Hokage and protect the people of this village. But she wouldn't have had that dream if the villages didn't exist. But it is mine to protect them all as if they were family. Even to have a family of my own one day, a wife and children and happiness like what my parents have. But for now I've just been going along with getting stronger and helping my village family as I can." But sometimes… "I feel empty," he finished with a whisper.

The fox arched a single brow. "What was that?"

"Protecting my village?" the boy said. "Or becoming a Hokage?"

"Neither. You said you feel empty."

The boy looked a little ashamed at peered at the ground. "I know it's wrong. I know it's conceited. I have a great family, good friends, have been blessed with talent, and have a good future ahead of me. But, it sometimes feels like something is missing," he said as a hand hovered between his heart and the seal. "Something right here." He felt a tear or two fall from his eyes. "And look at me crying about it. I'm such a brat to complain." He was only broken out of his funk when a large pink tongue swept up his body from toe to head again. "Would you stop doing that?" he yelled in righteous fury as he stood up from the ground where he had landed on his butt.

"Hmmph," the fox snorted. "It's how I show compassion. So get over it."

"Kurama-baka."

"Naruto-baka. You don't even get it, do you? That desire of yours, that empty feeling, that is the wish I was looking for. For a long time I have felt it too, the feeling of missing a piece of myself. I haven't felt as complete in years as I did when I first woke up inside you."

"Then maybe all we need is to find your brothers and sisters. Maybe we should come back together again." The boy was unsure why bringing together the various tailed beasts sounded like a good idea, but it really kinda did. Especially since he was in essence one and the fox and him seemed to get along.

"Maybe," the fox conceded. "It would be nice to see them again."

They paused for a moment. "Did you really get beaten by a cat on your first mission?" asked the giant fox.

"Tora is a demon!" the boy responded without hesitation and, quickly, the talk deteriorated into stories of their pasts, the fox having enough stories to last several lifetimes. Though yes, it seemed Tora the cat may have some demonic lineage. It was only what seemed like several hours, maybe a full day, later that Naruto felt tired.

"It is the otherworld calling you back," the fox said as he lifted the boy back onto his back where had once slept, lifting him with a single gigantic palm. "So go. Tell them what you think wise, but be cautious, brother. Son. Whatever we are."

"Okay, Kurama," the boy said, yawning as he burrowed into the fur a little. "And friend. If nothing else, then definitely friend." The boy closed his eyes. "Good night."

The lights dimmed and the fox too felt tired. He had not talked so much in decades. "Yes, I can definitely say friends," the fox whispered to the sleeping ninja on his back. A little innocent blonde boy who was now officially bathed in the blood of an innocent. It really was tragic.

Thank you to Naruto Game of the Year Edition for introducing me to the idea of the yamato nadeshiko. It is an interesting trope that is amazing when done well and I hope that if (as I might) I use it for a main character in the future I will be able to do it justice.

**And that is where I stop for the night. **

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. I am not a professional writer and I respect criticism in the highest and wish to receive it. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	3. Child of Man

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruto (I wish) and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**Second, I'm sorry about the slow update. I wanted to finish chapter 4 before updating this, but I just can't flesh out the last third of the chapter well and I'm still not proud of how it is, but I decided there was no point withdrawing this chapter any longer.**

**Lastly, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Credit out to all my reviewers, especially those who asked good questions about the series and offered criticism. In particular I owe a lot to Bibliophile1521 for letting me bounce some ideas off of him.**

**In any case, I think it's time I shut up and end this AN.**

**Child of Man**

It was early in the morning when our blonde hero woke up. He was twelve this year and life had been going fairly well. Yes, he still had his grotesque fascination with death. Yes, that was also diminishing some over time. Yes, he was getting along better with his brother beast as time went on. Yes, he was still a genin. And yes, today was the day that would finally start to change. Like always, the boy started off the day with the hand seal to his favorite jutsu, the Kage Bunshin. Two clones went to make breakfast. One left to paint and record last night's dream. And he left to do his morning warm ups.

Maito Gai, a taijutsu specialist beyond compare, the Yondaime Hokage, Gai's student Lee, Sasuke, and Naruto always did a warm up session in the morning that most would have simply gaped at, even if the immense workout was still just morning exercises that the four shrugged off easily, albeit that Naruto was not on the adults' level yet and Lee was even further behind as he had only done this routine for about a year. Still, Lee was ever closing the taijutsu gap on Sasuke and, in a fight that was solely taijutsu, Sasuke did need to do his best to beat Lee. By the time they were done, an hour and a half later or so, they all finished with a warm down jog to the Namikaze's house where they had a borderline feast to recover calories, especially Naruto who, in addition to a huge meal, ate specialty high calorie bars that Tsunade baa-chan had made for him when he turned eight.

The boy had a metabolism like none other and it was only a specialized chakra grown blend of highly compact grain and fat in bar form that provided the calories he needed for the day while his other food focused on normal nutrition like needed vitamins and minerals. Not that he'd ever get into too bad a physical condition due to the chakra that, although sustaining him, also burnt much of his energy.

And not only did his chakra help him regenerate, but, not unlike his distant descendant Emi, it made him the picture of perfection. He was the heartthrob of many girls (and even a few boys) his age. Sasuke had almost as many admirers as well as, not only was he an adopted Namikaze, but he was also Uchiha and young girls were mistaken to think that his tragic past was an attractive trait. The boys both wondered how many fans they would lose if only it was general knowledge that they both went to therapy every week.

Not that therapy was uncommon among ninja, especially those who were of high rank or retired. At that point, there were a few too many memories that could not be forgotten or drowned away in alcohol, porn, or the addiction of choice. What was unusual was for two boys of their age and rank to need therapy. Usually it didn't start for another few years or until at least Chunin rank. However, having vivid dreams of destruction and death or having your whole family killed can mess you up a little bit. Add that onto their mission repertoire which, although not yet as expansive as some older ninja did cover the same range of missions from assassination and infiltration to demolition and protection, and you get two messed up twelve year olds. Sasuke had even taken to a little bit of marijuana to cool down from time to time, though he wasn't really terribly addicted at the moment. And then there was Naruto who still had his clones kill themselves in gruesome ways to quench his death wish. Yes, two messed up little boys indeed.

Regardless, it was time to move on. The boys used a basic body flicker, shunshin, to arrive at the Academy. They were to be assigned a third team member today and, by the time that the next Chunin exams came around, they would likely take them and finally advance in rank. And when one must spar with the village's elite – Gai, Kakashi, Asuma, Genma, Raido, Minato (without his Hiraishin) – to feel a challenge it was long past time to progress in rank to at least chunin. Hell, Yugito in Kumo had visited last month on a diplomatic mission and she was already a chunin. Her village was even considering making her special jounin. And both boys could fight with her on an even level before anyone tapped into either bloodlines or bestial powers.

In any case, they stepped into the meeting room for all the new genin and noticed a number of their friends present. Hinata, Shino, Ino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Chouji, and a few others the boys were not familiar with gravitated towards them when they entered as they had all befriended the boys at one point or another. Hinata even shyly grabbed Sasuke's hand as she came over as, although they weren't officially dating at their age, they were very good friends and apparently, had been betrothed since birth as an olive branch between the Hyuga and (now nonexistent) Uchiha. She was a pretty girl for her age and promised to turn into a looker. She had hair so glossy black that the right light even made it seem to have a blue gleam, her lavender eyes that signaled her clan were filled with tenderness unseen in many of her family. Overall, it was like someone had put in the definition of a Yamato Nadeshiko into the story as a plot device.

Somewhere many, many miles and years apart a certain mangaka sneezed before paling at the odd suspicion that someone had not only mentioned him, but also broken the fourth wall. But such a little man is unimportant to our story.

Other students eyed them in awe as, even though there more important missions were secret and unheard of, they were known to do B – rank and even the rare A – rank mission at their age. Their heritage helped grab some attention too.

"Hey guys!" said Chouji in welcoming before going back to munching on his chips.

"Naruto!" yelled out Kiba before clasping hands with him and shoulder checking, their usual greeting between good friends. "I haven't seen you guys for at least a week! Why are you guys here when you could be on some crazy awesome mission?"

Naruto laughed a little bit at his caninesque friend's comment, ignoring the way that Ino and another friend, a clanless girl named Sakura, were hanging off of him as if trying to seduce the Namikaze heir. Honestly, he found their attempts to be a sad waste of their potential and had hinted at such but couldn't bring himself to be brutally honest about it enough to stop them. "We're here to get a third team member. Dad won't let us be chunin until we pass the test with at least one of you guys."

Many of the friends nodded as they had heard of the situation and knew that they boys were fully ready to be at least chunin by now. Everyone knew of Naruto's nearly full control over his demon and of Sasuke's mature Sharingan that, through a carefully performed and safely controlled self-induced genjutsu, had advanced to become Mangekyou Sharingan. Not to say that the terrible vision of him striking down Naruto hadn't damaged him at all. The only downside to his eyes were the fact that, apparently overuse of their best techniques past the limits of his chakra capacity could slowly blind him. He trained with them daily to know their limits and avoid such a fate, but using them in battle where they could not be regulated with such precision was still a risky move.

In any case, the preteen ninjas all talked about everything and nothing until Iruka, their teacher, came in and told the class to sit down. He quickly explained to the new ninja, Naruto and Sasuke zoning out as they had heard the speech before, how they were now representatives of their village and country and that they were about to embark on a new journey that would be, though challenging, deeply rewarding. Soon, he had moved onto team assignments.

Shikimaru, Kiba, and Ino were placed on team ten while Hinata was placed on Naruto and Sasuke's team seven and Sakura, Shino, and Chouji were placed on team eight. That gave each of their teams at least the brains, the brawns, and the tracker. The rest of the genin were placed on other various squads but, in all likelihood, may only ever reach chunin with the average aptitude that non-clan shinobi and those without shinobi heritage often had. There was a chance that one or two may become jounin, even that a few would join Anbu, but as a whole the remainder of the class of fifty some would likely become a true group of thirty some after the final genin tests took place within squads.

None would ever probably be considered "elite" and the chances were just as small as the chances that any would become Anbu Black Ops. Many chunin and jounin did join Anbu, but only a few become the Anbu elite that were either captains or known as the Anbu Black Ops agents. Those agents were head and heels above other agents as the general Anbu only needed to be chunin that specialized in interrogation, stealth, information, infiltration, various espionage, or demolition. The Black Ops agents were experts in all six fields in addition to finely honed skills in their own preferred areas. Naruto's own father had been in Black Ops at one point before becoming Hokage. That isn't to say that some jounin weren't just as strong as Black Ops agents or Anbu captains, but that it was fairly rare. Sarutobi Asuma and Kakashi Hatake were both examples, but both came from clans and Kakashi had once been an Anbu captain while Asuma had been one of the Fire Lord's, the Daimyo of Fire Country, personal guard.

In any case, Naruto and Sasuke were certain that their three groups would do well and all probably become jounin or at least special jounin in time. But for now their concern lay with simply learning how to work with Hinata. The nine friends plus one or two extra went out for lunch before all but team seven went back to wait for their jounin to arrive. In the meantime, our heroes left for the Namikaze training ground where they met a bloody-nosed Jiraiya. No doubt he had gone to some hot springs today to peep on women. What was in doubt is if the blood was from a comical technique used in manga and anime to express perversion or if it was that his nose was still healing from a righteous beat down from the women who were the subjects of his perversions. Despite his perversions, however, it could not be denied that he had aged gracefully for being in his early sixties. He cut an imposing figure with wide shoulders and an above average height, his long mane of hair a shocking white.

In any case, the man was playing Shogi with an old, wizened toad. "I've got you this time Fukusaku!" said Jiraiya before turning away to greet his students. "Oh, hi boys. You must be Hinata then," the man greeted, not noticing the old toad making an illegal move that took away all of Jiraiya's advantage.

"Hello, Jiriaya-sama," the shy girl returned.

"Oh, don't call me sama. It makes me feel old." The man looked back at the board, all of a sudden realizing that he had been put into a terrible position in the game. He stood up, conveniently "bumping" the board in process and causing it to flip over. "Oh, I'm sorry Fukusaku. I guess we'll never know who won now."

The other cheater grumbled. "Sure, Jiraiya. It probably didn't hurt that I held major advantage."

"Sure, Fukusaku, it's not like you had just cheated, either." Maybe the man had noticed. "In any case, we do need to get to work. Now, Hinata, you are part of the team but, unfortunately you are the weakest link. That is why today you will be working with me expressly while Sasuke summons a raven to reverse summon him to their realm to start training in becoming a shaman in their arts and Naruto leaves with Fukusaku here to Mount Myobaku to start his sage training." The girl looked ashamed she was so far behind, but her 'boyfriend' helped to end that.

"Hinata-chan, don't feel so down. We have years of experience on you," the raven haired boy continued. "Jiraiya-sensei will help you get closer to our level as soon as he can and then we can work on teamwork. You are not a hindrance. In fact, dad put you on our team because he thought you would be the most likely person to contribute to our team, even more than anyone else in our class. He has faith in you."

The girl looked up, feeling a little better, before giving him a chaste peck on one cheek. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun." Her face was red with a blush, but not horribly so.

In a few minutes more time both blonde and brunette had left the girl with their master. "Do you know tree-walking?" he asked. The girl nodded yes. "What about water-walking?" The girl shook her head no. "Then that is where we'll start." The rest of the day was an adventure in chakra control that left the girl drenched until the boys came back from their training places, Sasuke pallid and Naruto drenched with liquid effort – sweat. It had been a good first day of training.

It ended with them going to Ichiraku's Ramen for a good team bonding meal. Not that Naruto couldn't make ramen of decent quality, but because the Ichiraku family were friends with the Namikaze family and because Naruto couldn't quite make ramen of their quality yet. And Naruto loved good ramen.

Regardless, they ordered various flavors of ramen to chow down on while talking about their day. Hinata had already gotten water walking down, in part due to her hereditary chakra control, and had even started to do some light sparring on the water with Jiraiya. Naruto had spent all day in a fountain of natural oil that helped align him with nature chakra. This was a dangerous process as too much nature chakra channeled on the toads' sacred Mt. Myoboku could cause one to turn into a stone statue of a toad in excess amounts. Naruto did not have that danger for some reason. He had managed to channel the energy extremely quickly and with no negative side effects. After an hour of successfully doing so, Fukusaku had him move on to the next step of finding perfect stillness by having him balance on a small board on a pointy mountain peak. Naruto had failed several times and had fallen to his immense pain. But still, he was better than at the beginning of the practice session. He also had the sinking suspicion that Fukusaku was upset that the oil had no effect on him as the old toad had prepared his cane to beat Naruto back to reality if it had started to affect him, but our favorite blonde had escaped beating free.

Sasuke didn't seem to want to talk about his training with the Ravens, but if the stories about the pure terror that must be mastered to use the abilities of a "Shaman," than it was understandable. It was less physically taxing than becoming a Sage, but no less difficult.

As Naruto ate his ramen with extra naruto, Hinata ate miso, Sasuke had something with a tomato flavoring, and Jiraiya merely people watched for girls a third of his age. It was then that he spied one such lovely lady with flowing, black hair, carmine eyes, a skimpy outfit, and an amazing figure accentuated by said outfit. Only to have his hopes for the night burned as he realized the woman was holding hands with Sarutobi Asuma. Yes, Yuuhi Kurenai was taken.

In any case, Asuma's students – Ino, Shikimaru, and Kiba – followed the man and not a moment later did Sakura, Shino, and Chouji enter with a lazy, white-haired jounin coming after them, his face buried in a certain pornographic novel. It seemed that the groups had both passed their final genin exams with Shino and Shikimaru figuring out that teamwork was the point of the tests and pulling their squads through.

It was a good meal for the new genin and their sensei, even if Kurenai was uncomfortable sitting near Hatake Kakashi reading his perverted book and Jiraiya, said book's author, occasionally leering at her. Shikimaru talked about their test in which they had been given a map and told that only those who reached the destination marked on it could become genin with each member given a different section of the map. Students often fought for the whole map and then the winner would reach the destination only to fail. They were smart enough to work together for the goal.

Likewise, Shino had guided his team to success in a test devised long ago that Kakashi was fond of where students were told that only those who could win bells in a fight from the jounin would become genin. The test forced students against each other as there were always three students competing for two bells. The only way to win was using teamwork. They didn't even have to beat Kakashi, merely working together was the passing requirement.

Both of their teams were disappointed that team seven hadn't taken a teamwork test until it was pointed that, inevitably, Hinata would work with at least Sasuke and Sasuke would work with Naruto, meaning they would have passed regardless of the situation. So ramen was eaten, jokes were made, Naruto was hit on, Kurenai beat up Kakashi while Asuma laughed, and all went well. They parted separate ways that night, each in good cheer, looking forward to how life would change now and what the future held.

**And that is where I stop for the night. I'll post chapter four whenever I can be satisfied with how it flows. I know where it's going, but it just doesn't seem to be getting there at the speed I want. I'll figure it out sooner or later.  
**

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. I am not a professional writer and I respect criticism in the highest and wish to receive it.**

**Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	4. Mission Impossible

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruto (I wish) and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**Second, I'm really excited about updating so quickly. Posting the last chapter gave the inspiration to power through and finish this one as well. Parts of it are rushed, but that's because they are not key to the story and, therefore, not overly important.  
**

**Edit 1: Okay, maybe the details were more important. Not the fights, per say, but the character development. Therefore the development is expanded, as is a single fight to tease you with shaman powers.**

**Lastly, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. In particular I appreciate shine for reviewing once per chapter right in a row and being my only reviewer despite having over six hundred hits since having posted the last update. Step it up people.  
**

**In any case, I made you wait two months for the last update so I'm not going to make you wait any longer to read this chapter.  
**

**Mission Impossible  
**

It may have been in the Land of Snow, but make no mistake, it was nothing but a trial by fire. It came in as a low B-rank mission request, but Konoha had known better. It was not an escort mission for an actress like advertised, but really hiring bodyguards for a princess returning to liberate her country. They couldn't easily put a team of chunin on what was really an A-rank, even possibly a very low S-rank, mission without endangering them. Likewise, they couldn't send jounin without tipping their hand. But a genin team could be sent inconspicuously. And an Anbu team could be sent in secret. It only came in handy that team seven, save Hinata, had experience with both roles and had a great sensei to bail them out if it came down to a harsh fight.

The Yondaime Hokage also had another high class mission for the team, but was unsure if they could truly handle it. It was with hesitation that the elder Namikaze did not tell his sons or Hinata about the mission's true content, only telling Jiraiya and telling the elder toad sage to allow the younglings to run the mission themselves, only stepping in if he was needed. If the genin team could do this, he would trust them with the other mission, if not then Jiraiya could step in to save the day and at least it would happen on foreign soil instead of directly hurting Konoha.

The team had already gone on a C-rank mission that became A-rank when they traveled to the impoverished Wave Country and assassinated Gato, ensuring Tazuna's safety from the shadows, before accompanying the man during his travel home and protecting him while the bridge was built. Several C and B-rank missing nin who were pissed at their employer's death had attacked and Jiraiya had let the genin handle it. They acted beautifully, Hinata even having her first kill. They were poetry in motion as they ducked and weaved - Sasuke's ninjato leaving a constant stream of blood flying behind it as enemies were bifurcated; Naruto alternating between cutting, burning, and blowing up enemies; and Hinata acting as a last line of defense, striking down without impunity any who attacked Tazuna. Now it was likely that they would either fight against more ninja at a time of similar rank to before or less ninja of greater skill. Either way, it would be more difficult and definitely an A-rank mission.

"I still don't get why this is a B-rank, Ero-sennin?" whined Naruto. Hinata giggled at the name and Sasuke smirked, but Jiraiya, as always, fumed at the fact that he got no respect damnit.

"Well what did you expect, Naruto? That it would be a C-rank?" Sasuke asked. "As famous as she is, Yuki Fujikaze, the world renowned actress, do you really think this would be anything less?"

"Well, no," the boy said. "If anything, I thought it should be A-ranked." This caught Jiraiya's interest.

"Why an A-rank, Naruto?" the man asked, agreeing as he knew the situation but also wanting to hear the boy's input.

This time Hinata spoke up. "Last time we had a C-rank escort mission, we fought off a bunch of low class missing nin which qualifies as a B-class, really. If our client this time is a high class movie star who could be kidnapped for random and our bad luck holds up, it's almost certain that this will be as hard as an A-rank." Naruto just nodded.

The boy was about to open his mouth to continue when he turned around and caught the hand that was about to tap him on the shoulder. It was a soft hand, delicate and refined, and, as he followed it up the arm and to its owner's face, his heart shuddered. Yuki Fujikaze was even prettier in person than in the movies.

The ebony haired woman giggled as another delicate hand came up to cover her full, pouty lips. "As handsome as you are, ninja-san, I think I might be a few years too old for you and, as we don't know each other yet, I would say that we aren't at the hand holding stage yet."

Realizing that he was still holding her hand, Naruto quickly let go and stepped back, a slight blush on his face. "Ahh, gomen," he said as he rubbed the back of his head. Trying to change the subject, he introduced the team. "Ah, I'm Naruto Namikaze, this is Sasuke Uchiha, and this is Hinata Hyuga."

"Pleased to meet you," said Hinata while Sasuke nodded his agreement.

"Likewise," said Yuki, though concerned about their ages with what this mission would really be. She saw an older nin behind them, likely stronger and more experienced. "And who are you?" she asked cordially.

The man grinned as he felt it was right for a beautiful woman to want to know him better. Not vain at all, by the way. "Well, I'm glad you asked, beautiful." The man started to make a pose while music started to play in the background. "I'm the man that every man wants to be and every woman wants to-"

"He's a perv," said Sasuke.

"Yep," chirped in Hinata.

"He's a strong ninja, Jiraiya of the Sannin," Naruto said seriously. "But we usually call him Ero-sennin because, well, it fits." The man in the background just slumped over. How would he ever get a beautiful woman if that's how his team introduced him?

They left for Snow and soon encountered Ryoga Nadare and a few of his minions, each B or A-rank themselves. Jiraiya had played guard for the crew of the movie while leaving the three genin to take on the Snow nin and, although the nin escaped, there was no question that team seven had won. Hinata, definitely, had been barely winning but was winning nonetheless against her opponent, a woman who flew and used ice forming crystals. Naruto took control of the situation upon seeing Jiraiya standing back and found out the truth.

They got back onto the boat and the ninja were meeting with Yuki and the film's director and producer. "We signed up to help you all," Naruto started, "but we need to know what we're in for. You may act as a princess, but why were those nin saying to kidnap the princess? Normally it would be "that girl," or "that actress," but not "that princess." Naruto stopped for a moment, giving them a chance to reply.

The director looked intrigued as the man had no genuine clue. Yuki looked down at her lap, guiltily. But it was the producer, Sandayyu, who stood up to speak before Yuki rested a hand on his shoulder. "Sandayyu, this was my idea, and I'll take the punishment for it."

"But princess…" the man was shushed by her again.

"No, as princess it is my responsibility." She stood up, regally, before starting. "My name is not Fujikaze Yuki, but Kazahana Yukie. My father was once the daimyo of Snow country, but, with financial help from Iwa, my uncle, Doto Kazahana over threw him. I was just a little girl at the time and I barely escaped alive." She teared up. "I was one of the few to escape at all."

"Sandayyu was the head of my father's personal guard and had lived through when the enemy abandoned his body, assuming his wound to be mortal. He found me several years later when I was just starting acting under my new name. I quickly made him my producer and, ever since, we have been supporting a rebellion to take back the throne."

She walked around the table to stand before the ninja, before falling to her knees. "I did not wish to endanger the director, or crew. I did not wish to endanger you ninja. But we have received word that Doto is on the verge of discovering a new weapon that, if used, could shut down our rebellion completely. We had to come before he discovered it and the only way to do so was spend the remainder of our money on a mission. This was all we could afford and we came under the guise of filming a movie so as to be undercover." Bitter tears started falling from her eyes. "You can see how well that worked."  
"You hold the fate of my country, my people in your hands. I beg you to help us, at least until we meet up with the rebels." She fell prostrate to show her emotions to the ninja.

Naruto looked at his team, but they only looked toward him. He looked toward Jiraiya, but the man shrugged as if to say, "Your choice." Then he looked at Yukie.

Suddenly the sobbing girl felt a hand cupping her chin and raising it up. Still with tears in her eyes, she looked up to see Naruto's compassionate face. "We will help you, Yukie. We are Konoha ninja, and we know that breaking the rules is trash, but leaving your comrades alone in the cold, that is even worse." She looked to see the other nin nodding in agreement before throwing herself forwards into Naruto's arms.

"Thank you," she sniffled out, trying to stop her crying.

"And cut!" yelled the director. Apparently he had been filming the whole scene and would continue to. What better film could one make than one that had so much action and emotion, and a true story behind it?

Sasuke, their stealthiest member had taken Hinata to infiltrate Doto's castle headquarters and, although they could not find the man, they did assassinate Nadare while Naruto and Jiraiya stayed behind to defend the movie convoy.

Unfortunately, it was only when Jiraiya was on watch and Naruto slept that Doto struck. One of his other nin managed to kidnap Yukie from the camp as Jiraiya had allowed it, seeing it as a further test for Naruto. When they found out she was gone a few hours later, the blonde had tracked the nin to the center of a valley with glaciers on either side. The nin was protecting Doto who had just ripped a crystal necklace off of Yukie's neck and inserted it into a pedestal, claiming it would lead him to either treasure or a weapon, possibly the very weapon Yukie had worried about him finding. But, anticlimactically, nothing happened. The man angrily went to back hand Yukie, only to discover Naruto a mere few feet away, orange around his closed eyes. A ripped off arm in his hand.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

"I've figured it out, boy," Fukusaku commented. "If I'm correct, you don't need to stand still. Naruto, who had finally achieved perfect stillness, merely rose an eyebrow. "As you are part greater beast, you may be able to draw on nature chakra while moving." Now the boy's eyes opened quickly, an orange shade around them. "Yeah, I thought that would catch your interest."

xoxoxoxoxoxo

And it had caught his interest. You see, the chakra of the greatest beast is what formed the universe. It was a form of nature chakra in and of itself. All he had to do was filter Kurama's chakra through his own as nature chakra was a combination of both human and nature chakra, and he would be able to enter sage mode. Due to his huge reserves and Kurama's huge reserves, it was doable while in motion and in an instant and, as of yet, he had not ever run out of the addictive energy. The fact that Kurama had learned to gather nature chakra while observing Naruto's sage training only meant that the fox would be able to contribute an even larger amount of chakra to the boy. It was Sage mode that had stepped him up from shinobi speed to the next level in such a manner to race across a frozen wasteland and liberate the tyrant of his arm in the blink of an eye.

While Naruto was finishing off Doto, Hinata and Sasuke had other jobs. Hinata was in charge of stopping Doto's private military that came to assist him and, despite exhaustion towards the end, she managed to finish the job. Sasuke was in charge of taking out Fubuki and Mizore, the strongest two remaining ninja under Doto's control whom they had been fighting with in their original confrontation. He hadn't needed to call on the powers of a Shaman, but he wanted to hurry it along.

The two nin had been rushing towards their boss across a different path from their comrades, figuring at least one group would get to Doto in time. The glaciers loomed off in the distance when the heard a voice behind them. "What are you afraid of?" The voice leaked malice and horror and the thought of all the unpleasantness in the world, and they turned around to face it, yet saw nothing. It was only when they faced forward again, that they saw the Uchiha from before in front of them. But something seemed off. His eyes had active the sharingan, but black smog seemed to trail from his eyes which seemed almost dead in appearance.

Two hands broke the surface of the permafrost ground, before hauling up the rest of the bodies attached. One was a man who stood in front of Fubuki with a lustful leer on his features. He reached out to her. "There you are, Fubuki-chan. Won't you come over here and help your daddy with something?" the girl started backing up, tears in her eyes.

"Not real, not real!" she muttered, "I killed you. I KILLED YOU!" she screamed in terror.

Mizore was having a similar experience. "Come on Mizore-chan," a young woman spoke. "You can do better than that. Or are you just the failure I convinced your father you were?" Their biting words were strong and biting and neither could stand it. There was no genjutsu to break out of, it was real, or at least it was real to them. So they both turned to run. It all ended quite anticlimactically, however, when the two nin collided in the middle of their flight and their suits fried each other. Apparently it was a weakness of the armor's core. The boy let the dead go back to rest before leaving for the main fight.

The raven haired couple met each other at the top of one of the glaciers surrounding the valley where Doto and Naruto fought and held hands as they watched their blonde friend charge up a massive wind and fire attack, a fiery tornado that utterly incinerated Doto.

"Showoff," said Sasuke to his brother as he teleported down to him, still holding Hinata's hand.

The blonde rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I thought the chakra armor he was wearing might hold up more, so I wanted to be safe." It was just at that moment as Yukie grabbed her hero's hand in a warm embrace that the massive sound of massive sheets of ice cracking filled the valley. The massive rock peaks all around them in the valley known as the "Rainbow Glacier" lost the massive sheets of ice covering their fronts as the ice fell off. It turned out that Naruto's attack had jumpstarted the massive heater that the Glacier had hidden away. They found themselves in a gorgeous grassy clearing, a pond surrounding the center of the valley where they stood and a rainbow forming in the sky as the sun reflected off of the evaporated mist that was once ice.

They stared in wonder for a few minutes as spring had finally come to a land that was once thought to be frozen permanently. Their wonder was interrupted, then compounded as an image reflected from the various mountain peaks around them and formed a 3D image in the sky. "Yukie," a kind voice off screen spoke, "what kind of princess do you want to be?"

The image was of a little girl, a younger Yukie, that smiled in response to the question. "I want to be a kind, beautiful princess that everyone will love and that can help anyone who needs it."

The voice laughed. "Very good."

But the girl continued, her voice deathly serious, "But one day, I also want to be an actress and marry a handsome guy and have tons of kids to be great princes and princesses too." At this, our fully grown Yukie blushed as she had accomplished the first half of that and was holding the hand of a man she thought may be able to help her with the second part.

"Now, it's time to go to bed, and dream of spring," said the voice as a man appeared and shooed the little girl off to bed. The man faced the camera. "I hope you see this one day Yukie, to remember what you were and what your dream is." The man went into a slight coughing fit. "I hope I'm still around to help you, but if not, then I'd like you seek out a man named Minato Namikaze. If he has a son anything like him, he will be a fine young man. And remember, I'll always love you."

The image faded off and tears, both happy and sad, rained down the alabaster slopes of Yukie's face before she gave in and gave Naruto a huge kiss on the lips which he was much too shocked to return. As the director yelled "Cut!" on the scene and Yukie walked away with the smallest of blushes on her face, Naruto's face turned a more vibrant shade of the color as his hand rose to his lips to examine if that had really happened or not.

In a few weeks' time the remainder of Doto's military had been converted or eliminated and Yukie was secure in her position of power. There was a small time of celebration and relaxation and Yukie grew even closer to Naruto as they worked together to make the land of spring. Their last day together was spent exclusively in private with each other and it was a very sad farewell that ended with one questionably deep kiss and an envelope that Naruto was told not to open until he returned home. Jiraiya wasn't sure if he should be proud or jealous, so he settled for both.

The mission had taken one month's time for the team to topple a country, help start a new government, and return in time for the Chunin Exams. When they gave their mission report to Minato, the man seemed proud, though also distracted by something. That night when Sasuke told Kushina of Naruto's relationship, the woman had gone into overdrive with questions and teasing and finishing off the night with giving him the talk. Again. And giving him a condom.

"I'm not saying to go crazy with sex before marriage-"

"Mom!" groaned out Naruto.

"But if you do decide to become intimate with someone, be sure to be safe." She hugged him close, squeezing the breath out of him. "Speaking of which, have you noticed anything different about your Kaa-san?" she asked while modeling different poses.

Although he was mature for his age, he could still be really oblivious from time to time. All he could give was a shrug while Sasuke, who was also nearby, gave a grin at his guess. "You're going to have a little brother, Naruto," Kushina told him.

His face went from lack of comprehension to utter joy as he heard his mother's statement. "Really? What's his name going to be? How long? Is he going to be blond or a redhead?" he stormed his mother with questions in an enthusiastic tone rubbing her belly at the end as if he could already feel the baby.

Kushina just gave a pleasant laugh. "We haven't decided on a name just yet, and we still have another seven months. We don't know what he'll look like, and stop feeling my stomach – he's not big enough to feel kicking yet." The boy backed off, still exuberant about his sibling to be. "And he'll have to grow up big and strong just like his big brother and father." Naruto smiled at the thought. "Or maybe he'll actually get some brains." And Naruto just as quickly face faulted while Sasuke chuckled.

It was a calm family night and once Minato got home they simply relaxed, watching something fairly new called "TV" that featured various shows that would tell the news or give a fictional story. It only ended with Naruto going out later to watch the moon for a while before he went to bed. It wasn't quite full, but the sight still sent shivers down his spine

It was the next day when their team showed up to training that they were fairly shocked to see Kakashi in their training ground. Not only was he not their sensei, but he was on time to the beginning of their training session when the man was, normally, habitually and purposefully late to pretty much everything. The man looked up from his porn and gave them a smile only evident from the eye that wasn't covered by his hitai-ate.

"What are you doing here taichou?" asked Naruto as the man was essentially his uncle, but also was his superior in their Anbu missions. "And why are you on time?"

"Mah, mah, Naruto. Why so quick to business? Also good to see you Sasuke-chan." He said in a tone that was upbeat. He always enjoyed adding -chan to Sasuke's name in hope of managing to get a reaction from the boy.

"Hmmph," was the Uchiha's only response to Kakashi's nearly patronizing tone.

"In any case, I may be on time here, but I do plan to be precisely two hours and thirty five minutes late to my team's training session which was supposed to start at five this morning."

"But it's already a quarter to eight," said Hinata.

Kakashi's smile grew wider. "Precisely. In any case, Jiraiya is out of the country on a solo mission right now so Minato-sensei sent me here to tell you he requests you in his office at eight this morning."

"Already? We just got back from a mission and we don't want to miss the Chunin Exams," said Sasuke.

"Maybe it's not a mission," his girlfriend suggested. "Maybe it's a question about the mission that he didn't get to ask Jiraiya. It's not like he'd let the heirs to the Hyuga, Uchiha, and Namikaze families miss the exams." Here she got a devious smile. "He probably just wants to know what's in that envelope, Naruto-kun."

"Maybe," said blonde answered. He honestly hadn't opened it up yet as the exams were currently taking priority in his life and, besides, he was almost afraid of what could be inside such a letter.

Regardless of the reason, they thanked the cycloptic ninja and teleported into the Hokage's office precisely at eight, having waited until that precise moment to do so. "Hokage-sama," they intoned when appearing on one knee.

The exasperated Hokage just sighed as he looked at them. "If you wanted to surprise me, you were too slow. If you want to call me Hokage-sama then wait for a few years when I feel older. And please don't kneel to your own father or father-in-law to be."

Following the same old routine to exasperate him, they all intoned in a monotonous voice, "I cannot do so while you wear those robes, Hokage-sama." A flash of light filled the room and a second later a second one did so. The three genin now stood up as, as always, Minato had flashed home, put on normal clothing, and flashed back. "Much better," mumbled Naruto who always like seeing his father in this much more natural look than in the robes.

Minato stretched out a little. "Very true. So hard to move in those things. In any case, though, I've got something to talk to you all about." He stretched one last time before sitting down and picking up a small stack of papers. "I need to start off by saying I'm proud of all of you. You have all progressed at a faster rate than I ever would have expected. You are masterful at fighting, at infiltrating, and in most aspects of the ninja arts for how long you have been practicing. And on top of that, I can honestly say that I'm proud to see you all grow up from bright-eyed children to truly good-hearted people who, despite living in our violent world of the shinobi, only want the best for everyone. I can honestly say it is an honor to know all of you." He caught himself before he got too emotional and then focused on his son by birth.

"Naruto Namikaze. Genin. 12 D-rank. 10 C-rank. 6 B-rank. 12 A-rank. 4 S-rank. Nomination for Anbu captain due to both skills and experience. Master ninjutsu user and nearly as advanced as me in sealing. Jinchuriki and Sage. Catch!" the man threw a scroll at his son. "That contains the Hiraishin and Rasengan. Master them, never share them except maybe with your children. Make me proud, son."

Naruto bowed, tearing up as this was truly a rite of passage for him. "Yes, otou-san. I will proudly do so."

"Sasuke Uchiha Namikaze. 12 D-rank. 11 C-rank. 5 B-rank. 12 A-rank. 3 S-rank. Nomination to Anbu Black Ops for high stealth among other favorable traits. Master in genjutsu and learning kenjutsu from the ravens. User of the Mangekyou Sharingan and Shaman. Catch!" Another scroll was thrown. "That contains the strongest nonlethal genjutsu in Konoha as well as the method for triple layering genjutsu, a very difficult task. Master them, share them sparingly. Make me proud, son."

Sasuke also bowed, though he did not cry he was still emotional at how he was treated as family. "Yes, otou-san. I will make both of my clans proud."

"Hinata Hyuga. 4 C-rank. 2 B-rank. 2 A-rank. Nomination to field promotion to Chunin. Youngest master of the Hyuga clan's Kaiten and developing a taijutsu style that may be just as effective if not more so than the original gentle fist. Excellent user of the Byakugan and overall most promising genin of your actual graduating class. Catch." A final scroll was thrown. "That contains two jutsu as well, the basics of Tsunade's Genesis Rebirth technique and her super strength. She also wishes to tutor you in the healing arts if you acquiesce to her request. Master them, only share them with her permission. Make me proud, daughter."

Hinata bowed but, as this was the first time Minato had actually called her daughter was too choked up to respond and simply responded with nodding her head fervent yes while tears left her eyes.

"Your resumes are all impressive. Your skills are beyond those of your rank. And your promise is unlimited. So why are you still genin?" continued on the proud father. "Because we are very concerned about the next Chunin Exams. We have heard rumor that enemy forces, we believe Iwa, have joined with our 'allies', Suna, in an attempt to destroy us. The Chunin Exams are a perfect infiltration point for this. We also are wary of Kusa, Taki, Oto, Tani, and Ame who are all sending genin to the exams for the first time at the same time despite the rivalry between Tani and Ame and the hatred between Kusa and Taki. We do not wish our genin to be caught in the crossfire."

"So you want us to spy on various teams during the exams and to shadow teams in danger of being attacked?" asked Sasuke.

"Exactly. You will all be participating in the event that one of the various clan heirs from your year is targeted and as a general protection against any overreaching feud between the participating nations. You three will probably be targeted, but should be able to hold your own against pretty much anything. Of more concern is Neji Hyuga, Chouji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. Any of them would make excellent breeding stock for a foreign nation and while Neji's seal will prevent them from being able to analyze his body post-mortem, that doesn't stop them from attempting to steal his eyes while he still lives. Likewise, analyzing Chouji's body could reveal the secrets of the Akimichi food pills and analyzing either Kiba or Shino's genetic traits due to nearly a century of selective breeding could give a huge insight on how to make a similar clan or weaknesses that our clans possess."

"Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, and Shikimaru Nara are all also potential targets, though less likely as Sakura is merely the daughter of a fairly wealthy merchant while Ino and Shikimaru know only a few clan secrets and do not have bred traits or bloodlines. In short, you are defense not from all fights in the forest, but from their deaths. You are not to push them through, though some help may be nice as it would help Konoha appear strong in the third round of the exam."

He paused for a second while handing them each a folder. "Those each contain a copy of those you will be held accountable for as well as known threats in the exam. Your promotion to chunin is not contingent upon your success in the exam, but upon your success in protecting your wards. You have two weeks before the exams start to set up a plan, meet with your wards if you wish though do not inform them, scout out training ground 44, the Forest of Death, where the most questionable events are likely to happen, and stake out the other competitors as they arrive in Konoha. You can come to me with any questions you have in that time, but are there any you have to ask right now?"

Like the experienced team they were, they had already opened the folders and started going through the various papers inside. Sasuke spoke up first. "Why are Ino and Sakura participating if the paper provided is an accurate summation of their skills? They aren't ready."

Minato sighed. "True, but they are both trying hard to improve and with you there for protection from the worst this may be a wakeup call for them to train even harder."

There was silence for a few moments before Hinata came across the information on Suna. "I see the Kazekage's children are participating and that there is information on Temari and Kankuro, but that the information on Gaara is nearly nonexistent except to say that he is a jinchuriki. Of what beast and any known abilities?"

"Being Suna it is almost certain that he contains the one tailed greater beast, Shukaku. Shukaku's past jinchuriki have displayed mastery over either earth, wind, or both so expect any of them to be present. Naruto's abilities should be able to handle anything the boy can throw at you, though he should not be underestimated as there is a chance that, much like your mission records I listed earlier, his is doctored and the real record kept elsewhere to hide the most important missions."

After a few more minutes, Naruto noticed something that, while not drastic, was odd. "What do you know of Kabuto Yakushi?" he asked.

"Kabuto? Nothing really. The Yakushi family are fairly well known medics in Konoha's hospital system, but he's a first generation ninja, I believe. He doesn't seem to hold much progress as he's been in the exams once or twice before without passing, if I remember correctly."

This time it was Sasuke's turn to speak up. "Six times, actually. And twice were when he was given the option to either continue or leave before the second section or the preliminaries of the third section began. You think he would either have given up or gotten a field promotion by now."

The Yondaime considered it. "That is quite fishy, actually. Be wary of him and I'll see what information a few Anbu can find on him, see if he might be something more than what he appears. Any other concerns?"

They looked at each other and shook their heads, "No," said Naruto, "it looks like that's all for now."

"Good then, get training and get surveillance started. Good luck, and may the Will of Fire light your path."

"And expose the truth to light," the genin responded before leaving. They had a mission to start and scrolls to learn. And only two weeks before the potentially hardest mission in their life - protecting a minimum of three teams at once, watching out for snakes, and stopping the spillover of old village feuds from affecting their genin.

**And that is where I stop for the night. I'll post chapter five when I can finish outlinging the whole exams arc.  
**

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. I am not a professional writer and I respect criticism in the highest and wish to receive it.**

**Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	5. Gathering Information

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruto (I wish) and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**Another (for me) fast update, though parts of it feel rushed to me. The fights are supposed to be quick, to show the huge difference in skill between team seven and the other cells, but I may edit this and put more detail in. I'm not sure who saw the edited version of the last chapter, but it adds just a little bit to the snow mission for those who wanted it. Here's to you chrisgetsu45.  
**

**Lastly, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. In particular I would like to thank shine and chrisgetsu45 for some very analytical reviews. And would like to say to other reviewers that they may have hit on something important.  
**

**Gathering Information  
**

It was a bright day, one of the last that would probably be seen in Konoha for the next few months. They had a distinct four seasons, but it wasn't that much colder in the winter than it was in the winter. No, the main difference was that "winter" became the rainy season. The rainforests along the east coast of the country didn't feel the difference very much, but the rest of the country did. It was so bad that some of the rivers had to be periodically dammed or small villages and trade routes, especially those along the way to Suna which naturally had less fertile and more easily eroded soil, would be washed away.

It took a true native to Hi no Kuni, the Land of Fire, to be able to notice the difference in season when it wasn't raining out, but the main difference was the vegetation. After the rainy season, everything would gain its deepest color of green and buds and flowers would bloom on every plant. As "spring" ended and "summer," the dry season, began, the plants would lose just a little of their deepest greens and it would only rain once a week or so. When "fall" came around and the rain picked up a little, a whole new breed of seasonal plants would grow, spread their pollen, and be washed away in "winter."

Personally, Naruto always enjoyed the in-between seasons when the plants had their darkest green or, in the "fall," the way mosses would grow to cover the monstrous trees surrounding their village and their country. Buildings, if not treated, would find themselves covered in climbing ivies and gardens would sprout new breeds, some weeded out and some kept, seemingly overnight. It really was "fall" that was the most beautiful, though, he supposed. It was nature trying to reclaim the buildings humans had subjugated and living in harmony with its mammalian overlords.

Currently he was enjoying going through katas in the middle of a training ground, isolated in the middle of the woods, on top of a small pond. Flowering algae crowded around the edges of the pond and would sway as his motions made ripples on the surface. The tops of the trees swayed in a slight breeze that propelled a few stray clouds through an otherwise clear sky. Hinata and Sasuke sat off to the side, having couple time as Hinata sat on his lap and he lay back against a tree of unknown years. It may have been one made when Hashirama Senju, the Shodaime Hokage, made the forest around the village that much larger and more dense for defensive purposes. If so, the rings in the trunk could tell the story of ninja that had grown up here, academy students and kage who had trained in this ground.

Perhaps, as it was tall, towering over even the other trees around the clearing, it had been there previously. A sire to the newest trees. And if it was, then who could say what it had seen if it had been around long enough to naturally grow to such a height. The Senju brothers training before the clans joined together? Maybe even a time when chakra usage was primitive, clans did not exist, and tailed beasts ran free? Who could say? Who could break through the shell of this giant?

"I don't get why we need this training session sensei!" came a loud, shrill voice, easily penetrating the silent clearing and disrupting the peace. A sudden gust of wind shook the trees in the clearing, as if they were shivering from the voice. A few leaves dropping to the ground like tears, mourning the memories of great shinobi they had was about to be tainted. And around the corner of the lone path leading to the field a pink head of hair became visible. A silver head of hair was the next to be seen, followed by two brunettes.

"Don't you think that it'd be nice to see some of your classmates?" asked a placating Kakashi. This genin girl he got was getting on his nerves. He was sure she could become a fine kunoichi one day, but today was not that day. She had more than perfect chakra control, and was smart enough to find a way to use it, but she never trained if she could help it. Thank god Naruto had convinced her and that blonde genin that starvation diets weren't going to help or her physical strength would be even lower.

Munch munch. Crinkle. "Awww, the bags gone. Now what am I gonna do?" asked her heavyset teammate, Chouji, who had just finished another bag of his favorite barbeque potato chips. Unlike Sakura, Chouji could use a diet and exercise plan. As an Akimichi, his techniques burned through fat as well as chakra, but if he built some muscle as well he wouldn't need as much chakra devoted to enhancing his taijutsu and, in the long run, converting muscle to energy went farther for his family techniques than converting fat, even if fat was easier to put on. Sakura may have the right build but no effort in her job while Chouji put in a lot of effort but ate horribly, but then came their final teammate.

"I look forward to seeing them. It would be good to see how they have improved for the upcoming exam," came the dull voice of Shino. He was a logical boy, and not a bad fighter. He was the kind to truly care about his friends as his hive had a hive mentality. This same mentality often extended to those of the Aburame clan, making it so that people often fit into three categories: an enemy hive to not be trusted, a hive which with there has been no conflict but is not to be trusted, and those of his own hive who were to be trusted indefinitely. And like most Aburame, he would die for those he considered part of his hive.

As their squad walked into the clearing, only there on time as Naruto had set the time and Kakashi respected the boy, damn near treated the kid like a nephew, a second team hopped down from the trees. "NOOOOOO!" shouted a truly odd picture. A full grown man, with lean yet large muscles, a bowl cut, huge eyebrows, and a skintight green jumpsuit had just arrived, three teens jumping out of the forest behind him, wondering why the man was overreacting.

"What is it, Gai-sensei?" asked a boy who could pass as the man's son asked as the older man cried, rivers of tears running down his face. These two, the sensei Maito Gai and student Rock Lee, were obviously taijutsu specialists from both their build and lack of weapons.

"My hip rival," he said, pointing at Kakashi who had not yet taken his nose out of his smut, "arrived before me! As a noble beast of Konoha, I may never let myself be tardy, yet I arrive after him!" Both teacher and student caught each other in a desperate hug, consoling each other. It took a kunai knife being thrown at them to break them apart. "Well that was quite unyouthful, Tenten," stated the elder beast.

"Fate has simply declared them to arrive early, not us late," stated Neji Hyuga, a very uptight boy from the Hyuga clan, also a taijutsu specialist, but of a different style. His green suited teammate, however, just stared at him in confusion.

The girl just sighed in exasperation. "Look," Tenten started, "I don't know why you're so upset. They got here before us, but we're still on time."

"Did you hear that Gai-sensei?" asked Lee.

"We're not late afterall!" declared the man. "Our fire of youth has not left us Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!" another hugging match with more tears started and was promptly ignored by everyone else. Kakashi simply looked over the top of his novel, gave a disinterested glare, and returned to reading his porn. It was only a few seconds later, the hug match still occurring and his students still wondering at how freaky the elder team was (team Gai had held off on taking the exams for a year and were thus one year older), the final team arrived.

Asuma simply walked towards Kakashi and grunted, a sound which meant hello. The silver haired nin simply lowered his book, nodded up once to say hi, and went back to reading. The blonde kunoichi of the group, Ino, let out a squeal of "Naruto-kun!" before tackling the boy who had just reached the edge of the water.

"What a drag," droned out Shikimaru as he saw the girl fawn over her fellow blonde. Apparently being a genius wasn't enough to get the girls unless you also had a highly impressive heritage, dark past, and a reputation. That would explain why Naruto and Sasuke had girls hanging off of them and he, thank god above, did not. The boy had just wanted to stare at the clouds today while Kiba begged Asuma to spar and Ino ragged on both of them for whatever her issue of the day was. It had kinda become habit. Shikimaru only made up for his lack of physical strength and effort with his genius intellect. Asuma kept trying to tell the boy that if he didn't train harder and treat his body well that one day there would be an opponent that he couldn't beat. That there would be consequences. But the boy didn't have his wakeup call yet and, like any boy from the Nara clan will do, he probably won't wake up until he needs to. Asuma only hoped that wouldn't happen too late.

The muscle on their team was nearly as excited as Ino, however. Like with Shino's hive mentality, the Inuzuka clan had developed a pack mentality due to their closeness with their dogs. Kiba was no exception and, despite having learned that Naruto was the Alpha, still felt the need to challenge him for that spot, or at least make him work to keep it. "Are you kidding? We finally get to show Naruto how much we've improved and all one of you can do is go back to being a cling-on while the other doesn't care at all?" He quickly had two girls, Sakura and Ino, punch him down into the ground. Akamaru, Kiba's partner merely whined a little bit and pawed at his human's downed body.

"Hmph, cling-ons?" Sakura said while holding one of Naruto's arms.

"As if," Ino agreed while holding the other.

Tenten just shook her head in minor disgust; these two kunoichi were not doing a service to making females just as well regarded as males in the ninja field, something she was passionate about proving. No, they were just following the "barefoot woman in the kitchen can only raise children" stereotype that she hated. This was not to say that ninja as a whole disrespected kunoichi, as many were amazing infiltrators, medics, genjutsu mistresses, weapon mistresses and the like, but that they were still seen by many as the weaker gender just because they couldn't use huge chakra intensive jutsu their male counterparts could. They naturally had less chakra. But if she had it her way, she was going to prove that mastery over weaponry was just as powerful as any jutsu. But I digress.

With everyone present, Sasuke and Hinata got up to join Naruto. "So how do we want to do this?" the raven asked, deferring to Naruto's leadership.

The blonde looked to the jounin for their input as he suggested, "How about a team spar?"

They seemed to have no problem with it and Gai started to break them up. "How about my cute little genin team up with my rival's students against the most youthful teams seven and ten?"

Sasuke just chuckled at that. Neji, not fond of either the Uchiha nor the main branch of his house took it personally. "Do you have a problem with that? Thief?"

Now, thief was one of the insults any noble Uchiha hated the most as, first off, it set them with their brethren who actually did steal techniques and, secondly, it implied they had not worked for their ability. But, no, Sasuke was not so easily riled up. "Yes, actually," he started. "I don't like how unbalanced the teams are."

"So afraid of my superior eyes?" asked the branch clan boy.

"No, I'm afraid that, unless all three of your squads team up, that I won't even break a sweat."

Neji grit his teeth at that. "Fool. We won't even need those losers to take you down."

With that, Neji charged at Sasuke. Tenten took a second, but realized he would need cover fire and quickly started peppering team seven with kunai and shuriken, only to be shocked when, with a single hand motion and without calling out a jutsu, Naruto threw her projectiles off target, actually grazing Neji. The boy fell to the ground in pain as one shuriken was embedded fairly deeply into his leg.

Hinata simply glared at both her cousin and Tenten before calmly stating, "I don't believe the match was called to start, but apparently you have accepted our proposition of three on one." Her hands formed the ram sign, "Very well." She disappeared and reappeared behind Ino, using a single chop to the neck to disable the girl before going after Shikimaru, only to have Kiba intercept last minute.

Sasuke sighed as Naruto walked over towards Kakashi's team eight. "He actually takes the group with two fairly competent genin in it while he leaves me an injured Hyuga, a girl who only knows weapons, and a boy who cannot break genjutsu." He shook his head to clear it. "Next time, I get a better fight."

Meanwhile, Hinata had prioritized taking out Kiba as Shikimaru, while smart, would not be able to beat her, she believed. The boy had utilized a clone technique to turn himself into a more feral human and for Akamaru to look the same as he. They were currently using the Gatsuga technique, truly a unique technique that turned the user into a living, flying drill, to pin her in a small area and not allowing her in a hit while she used the solid, blocky taijutsu that was the Gentle Fist. She had not yet been able to get in a good hit, but was getting closer and closer when, without warning, she found herself unable to move. She moved into a slouched position and heard Shikimaru say, "Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique) success." She couldn't move due to the abilities of said tecnique, and Kiba and Akamaru were coming right for her.

Naruto was in a similar level of trouble as team eight had been stronger than anticipated. If he had to give any credit to Kakashi, it would be to the level of teamwork his genin had. It was marvelous how Sakura could set up traps on the fly and provide cover, allowing Shino to drain his chakra using his kikaichu bugs while Chouji attempted to flatten him with the Nikudan Sensha technique that transformed him into a gigantic human cannon ball. Sakura let open a hole in their defense which he quickly took advantage of and did manage to knock the girl out with a single palm thrust, but quickly found it had been a self-sacrificial technique. He was caught up in a mess of wires attached to kunai and trees that seriously restricted his movement. Shino quickly sent his entire hive at Naruto while Chouji simply aimed to steamroll the hindered boy.

Sasuke was truly in a better position than either of them as it had been a simple manner to knock out the downed Hyuga. From there he had merely placed a fairly strong genjutsu on Lee and been trading shuriken with Tenten. While the clone continued to trade throws with her, the real Sasuke appeared behind her and put a paint covered wooden kunai up to her neck. Tenten froze up as she felt the contact, before surrendering upon the realization that, if this had been real, she would be dead simply because she had not paid attention to her surroundings. That was one team down. He looked over to the others, expecting them to be finished but found them both to be in trouble. "Hey, stop playing around guys. Just show them how strong you are."

Hinata smirked some as she simply dodged the Inuzuka duo and, using a new, more flexible technique, tagged them both on their spines. Both were knocked out and Akamaru transformed back to normal. Shikimaru, however, was just in a daze. She had broken out of his control. That was only possible when one matched the precise output of his jutsu through each tenketsu in their body at once or simply us brute force. It was near impossible. Only Tsunade had managed to break out of this technique using chakra control, but now, Hinata had as well. With his only technique rendered useless and the heiress no longer pulling punches, using a style he had never seen before, he put his hands up. "I give," he said before laying down on his back and starting to watch the clouds. He just knew this would be troublesome.

Naruto too had smiled at Sasuke's earlier comment and, after a few seals, breathed out a smoke cloud at the bugs before being run over by Chouji. The tubby boy canceled his jutsu and turned around to make sure he hadn't hurt his friend too badly, but all that he saw was a poof of smoke and then, nothing. Naruto had come around behind him and, putting a tag on the back of his neck, knocked him out. Shino simply nodded. "I surrender."

"What!?" Tenten demanded. "I get the Nara surrendering since his move didn't work on her, but why are you giving up?" she wondered.

"But Tenten," Sasuke replied, "Naruto could have just as easily used fire instead of smoke and destroyed his whole colony. Shino is giving up because, in a real fight, all he would have left is taijutsu and some very basic academy jutsu to rely on against three opponents, one who specializes in taijutsu. It was smart for him to simply surrender."

Tenten had to cede the point as it was true. She had heard the rumors of Naruto and Sasuke. Who hadn't? But how was Hinata, a girl who had always seemed so shy and reserved to her, so strong? Barely a few months ago the girl couldn't speak without stuttering slightly and now she had easily beaten a squad of her old classmates. What truly was team seven?

The very same girl she was wondering about went from unconscious genin to genin and woke them up with some small healing jutsu before they all reconvened. Kiba was the first to speak. "Woah! You got strong Hinata! I didn't even see that coming! Right boy?" Akamaru barked in the affirmative before running over to Hinata. The girl picked him up and giggled a little as the puppy licked her face.

"Why thank you, Kiba. You, too have improved very much. But if you truly want to beat Naruto, you will have to get much stronger. I cannot beat him, yet I beat you with one move once I started to really try to win."

The jounin nodded. This had been an eye-opener to see their genin's faults this blatantly. Asuma asked his team the simple question. "What do you three need to improve upon?"

"I need to pay more attention to what's around me, and be better with taijutsu to defend myself" Ino pouted as she had been taken out before the fight began.

"I need more than just one jutsu," Shikimaru sighed. Damnit, this meant he would have to train.

"I need to be less predictable," Kiba said. It was a common attack pattern that had let Hinata take him out so easily. All three genin were correct and Asuma was sure to help them improve in the time before the exam.

"And what about you, my youthful students?" Gai asked.

"I need something more than long range techniques," Tenten said with a determined attitude.

"I…" Neji started, giving a dirty look at the Uchiha, "I need to be less proud when fighting." Also true.

"I need to find a way to combat genjutsu Gai-sensei!" shouted out a confident Lee. "And if I cannot do that by the exams then I will run around Konoha seventy times!"

"And if you can't do that," Gai followed, "then I will carry you on my back around Konoha one hundred times!"

"And if you can't do that, then I'll climb the Hokage monument up and down twice, once using just my left leg and right arm and once using just my right leg and left arm!" Their "manly" bonding continued on for a few more moments as each promise far exceeded the last until it dissolved into a hugging cry fest.

Ignoring them, as he was often bound to do, "Curse you for being so hip!" Kakashi turned to his team and raised an eyebrow, asking them how they should improve.

Sakura started. "I need to be able to fight one on one, not just play a support role."

Shino agreed. "I too often only play support. I also need to find a way to function if my colony is destroyed."

Munch, munch, munch. "Well," Chouji said as he finished a mouthful of chips, "I need to learn another way to fight an opponent than my one good clan technique." After a thoughtful pause he continued. "I also need to be more cautious around unknown opponents. I shouldn't have canceled the jutsu so soon."

With that, the sensei turned to team seven, only to see a note on the ground in their place. All it said was, "Great spar, fun time. Let's do it again. Late for a mission."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Team seven sat in their normal training ground, Naruto with his eyes closed in meditation, Hinata on her stomach, her right elbow on the ground with her right hand holding her chin up while her left idly felt the grass field, letting single strands run through her finger. Sasuke stood with his back to a tree, flipping a kunai with one hand, catching and throwing it up again by the tip. "They're fucked."

"Sasuke!" Hinata chided, "just because it's true doesn't mean you have to say it out loud."

"He does have a point, though," Naruto mused. "Gai's team is good enough that I could probably just reinforce a shadow clone with a bunch of chakra, enough to follow them through the whole exam, and have it follow them just in case." The others nodded, it sounded viable enough. "And for the others, well, I think we'll have to check out the forest first, especially since we weren't told what would happen in the forest."

"Do you think you could slip a tag on them all? Something to track them by location that would send out a distress signal under various circumstances?" Sasuke wondered.

"Yeah, I probably could. Make six "slave" seals that would tie into one master seal I'd control and have them send out a signal when I use the master. Maybe also when chakra levels raise too high or drop too low so we could know if they get into a fight or are in bad shape."

Hinata added her piece next. "If we did that, then we could send out a clone for each group, stay in the center of them so it is a minimum travel distance to each, and respond if needed. If we needed to split up and help multiple groups, we'd have to see what groups the threat called for before breaking up, and then split accordingly."

"In the end," Naruto mused, "there is a chance that they won't need help. Team ten is a deadly combination with Ino, Shikimaru, and Kiba, two to suppress and two to tear through the opposition. Likewise, between Shino's kikaichu and Sakura's abilities to set up traps on the fly, anything they can't beat they could probably still outrun. If anything, the biggest threat may be to team nine if they become too arrogant and assume that other genin can't beat them."

"True," Sasuke said. "But if they get beaten, it won't be by genin." With that he threw the kunai into the air once more and moved so that it fell perfectly into a holster on his thigh. "And with the level any given infiltrator would have to be to make it that far in the competition, no one would be safe from them."

**And that is where I stop for the night. I'll post chapter six when I have the prelims written up, though the chapter will probably only go through the forest.  
**

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. I am not a professional writer and I respect criticism in the highest and wish to receive it. I can't tell you how many times I've clicked on legacy story stats and was disappoint when the number hadn't grown.  
**

**Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	6. It's Kinda Like One of Those Stories

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruto (I wish) and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**Anyone notice I set up a community? Probably not. Anyhow, good way to waste time if you're up for it.  
**

**Anyone notice I have a profile? Probably not. Anyhow, I took the poll about this story down because I got far enough in the story with equal numbers in the polling that it won't matter anymore. In addition to that, it also may be worth mentioning that I have a very loose challenge idea at the bottom of my profile. In short, Infinite Tsukiyomi has already been cast. The whole crew is currently living it. One character, take your pick, realizes the truth, that everything is just this genjutsu. What happens after is up to you, really.**

**Lastly, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. In particular I would like to thank shine and friaku for some thoughtful reviews. Even more though, I would love to thank the reviewer God-ShadowEx100. Obviously his review about reporting my fic ten times because the title is misleading is the pinnacle of reviews. He has contributed highly to the conversation with a threat/promise that showcases his emotions towards my fic. To which I simply respond that he should have read my profile where it says, and I quote,**

**"Also, it seems people are not understanding that these stories are mine. If you do not like them, no one but your boredom incarnate forces you to read. And if boredom is why you are reading, not because you enjoy it but because that is all you can find to do online, there is the possibility that you should put down the computer and find something worthy of your time."  
**

**It's Kinda Like One of Those Stories that has Everything Start Off Fine Before Shit Hits the Fan  
**

"Hey!" shouted out a small boy. A few weeks had passed and team seven had scouted out the Forest of Death, training ground 44, booby trapping various areas they hoped to use as bases and setting up surveillance seals all across the forest, as well as a one use reverse summoning seal that would be able to transport one person directly to the medbay in the tower in the center of the Forest, where the test would end. Being able to send someone to instant medical care could really save someone's life. They would have made more, but the time to make the seal was only matched by the huge amount of chakra needed to activate it. It wasn't something that was typically practical – the main reason this seal didn't have much battlefield use.

In any case, team seven had spent the remainder of their time training. Hinata knew one or two of the most basic medic jutsu now, and Tsunade was in process of teaching her how to augment one's strength with chakra. Sasuke had learned the extremely powerful genjutsu that his father had given him and Naruto, with some help from Jiraiya, had managed to complete a two-handed rasengan. Not to say that any of them disregarded their old training to lean new tricks, as they knew better. Still, they were even further prepared for the exams than they were beforehand. And that was a good thing as, as they were about to find out, some of their opponents were not genin level.

As the exam did start tomorrow, most if not all, of the foreign teams had arrived. Team seven scouted them all out in person to see how they felt. And Sarutobi Konohamaru, the grandson of the Sandaime (third) Hokage, had run into one. Literally. "I don't think so, brat," replied a makeup genin who was wearing a loose, black bodysuit that appeared to have ears.

"Oh, just let the kid down, Kankuro," replied a bored blonde girl next to him. She wore a purple combat dress and wore her hair in four ties. A large metal object was strapped to her back. "If a kid did this to you in Suna, you just would have let him go and been done with it."

"She has a point," a voice said from a nearby rooftop. Naruto stepped into view. "You're not exactly good with children."

"Boss!" shouted the young Sarutobi. Naruto didn't know the boy too well, but he had once played with him at the boy's request and had quickly become the boy's role model after doing so. After all, he was young, powerful, of a similar heritage, and still made time for younger kids. And so, Konohamaru had taken to calling him boss.

"You probably should put him down," Naruto calmly stated.

"Hmph," he grunted back. "Make me." With that he pulled his arm back and went to release his punch, only to marvel as sand stopped both his fist and the kunai that would have embedded into it had the sand not intervened.

"It seems that even your friend knows that attacking the grandson of our Sandaime would not be very good for our villages."

A redhead stepped out from the shadows of a nearby building. "That is true," the boy said. He had slight rings around his eyes that seemed to show a lack of sleep. He also had what looked to be a tattoo on his forehead that read "Love." "I also wish for us to not be disqualified from the exams before they start." At this, the redhead looked at catboy. "Brother, put him down. This is stupid of you to do."

Despite the fact that catboy looked older, he followed the directions after a minute. Konohamaru struggled to get a breath before running towards Naruto who had jumped to the ground by now. "Thank you, Gaara, Temari."

The other boy returned a nod. "Naruto Namikaze, is it not?" Gaara wondered aloud while Temari looked on in awe. This boy was said to be even more powerful than her youngest brother.

"Yes, I am," Naruto replied.

"Very interesting," Gaara said before turning towards his siblings. "Come, let us go. We will surely meet him later again." With that they started to turn and leave. It was only after they had turned a bend in the road that Gaara broke the silence. "Don't kill him." The other two looked on curiously. Usually Gaara didn't care what happened to an opponent, not as long as they were beaten in the end. "Shukaku is telling me not fight him if I can help it. That he feels his eldest brother. And that he feels something even more powerful. I too feel something from him."

And that he did. His sand was only meant to stop the kunai, not his brother's strike. Yet the sand had stopped it. That meant someone with greater control of earth and wind than he had done so and it certainly hadn't been the small boy. Which meant it was Uzumaki. Interesting.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Naruto had already given the Leaf teams more than enough help this morning. The tracking tags they each had hidden on their person, a tiny tattoo on the bottom of their foot that they would probably never notice before the second part of the exam ended, also dispelled minor genjutsu. And between the genjutsu that had been used to make the second floor feel like the third, confusing those who couldn't find the proper room, and the sleeping genjutsu Sasuke had cast on various stairwells and the exam room's door, it was no wonder that the rookie teams from Konoha only noticed another fifty teams or so when they entered as well as various odds and ends of squads who had been unable to wake a team member who was more susceptible to genjutsu. In all, there were probably fifteen full teams from Konoha; ten each from Suna and Kumo; four or five from Taki; two each from Iwa, Mizu, Tani, Ame, and Kusa; and one from Oto.

They had gathered together to chat before the exam started, Naruto noticing that his father must have done something about Kabuto as that team was not present. Some were pumped up like Kiba and Naruto, some were nervous like Ino and Sakura, and others just didn't give two shits. In any case, it was good to do some nonfighting related catching up with their friends until, in a mere few minutes, a puff of smoke at the front of the room shut the various teams up.

The proctor was none other than Kurenai Yuuhi, Asuma's significant other and expert genjutsu mistress. "Well," she started, "I am your proctor for this section, and I have dispelled the various genjutsu around the building and must say I am impressed with both those who set up additional genjutsu and the rest of you for making it through the pre-exam genjutsu test. Before the proctor for the first exam shows, those of you who are not part of a complete team of three must leave the room. The first two parts of the exam are team based and, as your team has been left behind, you have already failed." There was much complaining, but the extras left the room eventually. The genjutsu expert waited until the last was gone before smiling. "And now," she continued, "you all must take a seat."

The various genin quickly took seats according to a seating chart at the front of the room. "Please, follow the chunin examiners when they come to get you." One after another, all the genin were taken from the room and led a huge room, pitch black surrounding them. They were told to stay where they were placed and, within minutes, the lights came back on.

The loudest voice in the room simply said, "What the fuck?" before the mumblings were silenced.

"As I'm sure you have noticed by now," Kurenai announced from the front of the room, "every person in this room appears as one of your teammates. You may have also noticed that you are unable to use your vocal cords as they have been targeted and disabled while in this room. You can thank the seals under the floor for both the genjutsu and the lack of speech." At this point, the sea of genin had calmed, and some had even figured out the test. "What you must do is simple. Find your team and approach a chunin examiner. They will tell you if you are correct. If not, all three people will be disqualified and their teams along with them. Anyone caught sleeping or using jutsu will also be disqualified."

She gave a huge smile. "Also, there will be no sanctioned fighting. If fighting is caught twice from the same person, any perpetrators and their teams will also lose. As there are fifty-one teams, we will continue until one hour is passed, the room empty from disqualifications, or thirty teams pass. Happy hunting." With those words, chaos ensued. No one could call out for their team, they couldn't talk to convince their team they were right, they had no clue where their teammates started in the chaos. Ironically, for maximum confusion, all teams started off side by side and viewing each of their correct teammates as the other.

Some teams, however, had no problems. Sasuke's sharingan saw through things instantly and Naruto helped gather the teams under their charge using his seals. Not that it mattered as Kiba, Shino, and Neji had already managed to almost finish doing so. Other teams also had fairly easy times. Those from Kumo were required to learn sign language. Gaara simply whirled his sand around him to attract his teammates as, no, it wasn't technically a jutsu. The Oto team seemed to find each other instantly, for some reason, and the Ame nin emitted such distinct killing intent that they could recognize each other. Others had a fairly hard time.

And then some group, no one knew who, figured out a technicality. Fighting was only not allowed if it was caught twice. And caught sleeping was code words for "knocked out." Soon people started falling to the ground as they were stabbed by who they thought was a partner while others simply were caught as they attempted to fight and were easily caught. Soon, twenty-three teams had passed and only three more entrants were standing strong. Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke had eliminated somewhere between ten to fifteen teams, depending on how many genin they took out were on the same team. They walked over to a examiner who simply smirked. It was Iruka, and he had seen them find each other before almost any other team. Maybe even before the lights came up.

"Very good, team seven." The illusions dispelled and each of them smiled up to their old academy teacher who smiled back to them. "You three have passed. It seems that the Will of Fire has lit your path while walking through the halls and exposed the truth to light about your teammates."

The genin just groaned. They hadn't even caught the first two exams had copied that phrase. They recovered quickly, though. "Yeah, yeah," Naruto said. "Now what?"

"Just walk into the next room," the chunin instructed them, so they walked over into a smaller classroom. At the front of the room sat Kurenai while they examined the other teams who were sitting down, some talking, others waiting silently. They were the twenty-fourth team of fifty-one. They had taken out at least ten teams, which meant that another seventeen teams or so had either lost in the fighting, been caught fighting, or gathered the wrong teammates. That left the last twenty-four squads with seven from Konoha, six from Kumo, three from Suna and Taki, and one each from Kusa, Ame, Mizu, Tani, and Oto. Iwa had already been wiped from the competition board.

Kurenai was actually surprised. And happy. This was a test meant to simply weed out the worst of the bunch. She expected a full thirty teams to pass and some still in the room when time was called. She hadn't realized that so many teams would be wiped out in combat when jutsu were not allowed. Still, that had been the goal here. "Congratulations to those of you who have passed so far. There were over one hundred twenty squads signed up to participate. Fifty-one complete teams made it through to the first exam. Only twenty-four have made it through the first exam."

"You have managed to reach here because you did not desert your team if someone fell prey to the pre-exam genjutsu. You have made it here because you could tell your team apart from others, even if they looked and sounded the same. You know your team well. You also made it here because you were good enough to evade those who, under guise of your team, attempted to take you out and, in fact, several of you took them out in return without being caught. Stealth is highly important in many missions in our profession, and you have succeeded in being stealthy if you fought or catching on to others' stealth quickly enough to react. Once more congratulations." Before she could continue, however, the windows shattered in a glorious, beautiful explosion as a woman tumbled through, a banner pinning itself to the ceiling by several kunai. It simply read, "The Sexy and Single Anko Mitarashi."

And the woman was, admittedly, sexy. She had the standard curvy and thin, yet lean muscled build that most kunoichi gained over time. Her body was covered in a mesh suit that only had a flattering burnt orange tube top and miniskirt covering her assets while a tan trench coat provided a little more protection from the elements and shin guards rested on her legs, probably more for a taijutsu style than defense as it was the only armor she wore. The sultry smile helped cement in the image of both beautiful and deadly. Then she opened her mouth.

"Okay, guys, the next part of the exam will be held in training ground fourty-four. You have fifteen minutes to reach it. You can either follow a Konoha team and hope they know where they're going or follow me through the long route and hope you can keep up." A low buzz of conversation started up, but she quickly cut it off. "Okay, brats, let's go!" With that, she gave a peace sign before turning around and jumping straight through her own banner. Some genin streamed behind her while others attempted to follow Konoha genin. Those who followed Anko had the better chance of making it as those following Naruto's team soon found their team bursting into smoke and one team from Suna failed to find another group to follow. Twenty-three left.

The real cell seven had just arrived there via shunshin teleport directly from the classroom Anko had broken into. It was more chakra intensive, but they couldn't be followed and was faster. A mere second later, a tan blur came flying in from the trees and landing suddenly enough to make small cracks in the ground below. Anko had arrived. She calmly fixed a single strand of purple hair behind her ear as she walked forward, examining cell seven to see just who it was who beat her here. And honestly not being surprised. Following her came several more blurs, landing in groups of three. The other squads had arrived and, unfortunately, she had not lost any behind her as she had been holding back some on her speed.

Most of the genin that landed outside of the training ground took a good long look at the Forest of Death. It was truly a foreboding sight, humungous trees and vines with branches sticking out over the edge of the fence, but not too many. Konoha didn't need the wildlife in there to escape. Sure, it was a rainforest of the type common in Hi no Kuni. The difference was that, in addition to the usual lemurs, apes, small bugs, and few natural predators, there were poisonous insects and amphibians galore as well as many larger predators that came in the forms of bugs, birds, mammals, snakes, and even plants.

Jiraiya occasionally had team seven train in there and, now, they could handle it without supervision. When Hinata had joined them, though, they had always had to watch out for her. They weren't sure what was worse, the snakes that rarely attacked but could swallow you whole or the highly aggressive, mildly poisonous spiders that had bodies the size of a grown man's torso and legs as thick as the same man's arms. Regardless, Naruto had spent enough time that the creatures in the forest knew not to attack him by his scent alone. And he had the tracking seals secreting trace amounts of his scent. Hopefully it would be enough to deter some of the wildlife.

"Alright, brats!" Anko shouted. "In order to sign up for this, you had to sign a waiver saying that your life would be risked, maybe lost, and that you and your village have no problem with it. If you do suddenly have an attachment to listening, you may leave now." No one moved. The worst hadn't made it to the first exam, and even then that exam had left only some of the best. With a little more than one sixth of the original applicants left, things were bound to be fun.

"In this next phase, you'll be up against the most dangerous predator. And no, I don't mean the fun beasties in the training ground here. I like to call it the Forest of Death, not just because of the danger inside, but because many of you will be fighting to the death." Some of the genin looked uneasy at that. Some though, like Kiba, still looked upbeat about the next test. She threw a Kunai at his direction, scratching his cheek with it before appearing behind him and licking the blood from his cheek. "It's cocky little brats like you that usually die first," she said, only to freeze when she felt a kunai cut her cheek. She turned around, only to see a genin from Oto behind her, licking the blood off. Off of the very kunai Anko had thrown.

"I figured that, since this cut my fucking hair when it was thrown by you, I'd see if you damn hobby was any damn good." The redheaded genin cockily continued. "And it fucking blows."

Anko recovered fairly quickly, though. "Well, if you live through this, I'll talk to you about it." She leaned her head to one side and added as an afterthought, "That conversation probably won't happen, but I'll look forward to it." She returned to the front of the group to describe the event.

"In any case, we're doing what we call a scroll battle. There are ten jounin who will be out in the training ground; each will have a particular type of scroll, numbered on their exterior one through ten. In order to get a scroll from them, you must pass a test and, the higher the number on the scroll, the harder the test is bound to be. A jounin may only give one of their scrolls to the same team. Each jounin has four scrolls and once they're gone, they're gone. At the end of five days, you must end up in the center of the Forest with your whole team alive, and have scrolls that add to at least fifteen. Do not, however, look inside of them, or you will be disqualified. Killing is allowed. If the maximum amount of you passed, fourteen teams can get through here. We're guessing it will be much lower, though." She smiled. They estimated five teams at the most would make it.

"So, in summary, find fifteen points worth of scrolls, go to the center of the Forest, whole team must live, and you have five days!" she chirped pleasantly. "Now, follow the various chunin examiners as they lead you to your assigned entrances to the forest, have fun, and try not to die!" With that, she simply turned towards the Forest, jumped and, midair, seemed to fade from existence. Either she had replaced herself with a clone or had used a very fast shunshin. Within ten minutes all of the applicants were at their gates.

The loud speaker turned on above the gate. "1 2 3, Alpha Bravo Charlie, Is this thing working?" came Anko's voice. "Ah, who cares. The second phase of the chunin exams begins on the count of three! Get ready for the count down! 1! And 3!" With that twenty-three teams of genin jumped into a dark place, a center of chakra and energy the likes of which many of them had never seen. A rainforest in the start of the rainy season. And what many of the surviving genin would always remember at a time when the bottle was nearly empty and those thoughts they tried to suppress would rise to surface, showing them the things they had tried to forget. The things that one could never truly forget.

**And that is where I stop for the night. I'll post chapter seven whenever.  
**

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. I am not a professional writer and I respect criticism in the highest and wish to receive it. I can't tell you how many times I've clicked on legacy story stats and was disappoint when the number hadn't grown.  
**

**Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


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